Hamilton dentist Rahul Gautam (left) leaves the Hamilton District Court on Monday, where he is defending three charges of indecent assault. Photo / Belinda Feek
A dentist defending indecent assault charges says he led a woman up to his bedroom in the hope of sexual intimacy, later describing the atmosphere as that of “girlfriend, boyfriend”.
Rahul Gautam, owner of Hamilton Emergency Dental Centre, is defending three charges of indecent assault, relating to alleged breast groping, kissing, and the touching of her genitals, at his Tamahere home two years ago.
Gautam, 51, was labelled by his lawyer, Philip Morgan, KC, as a “foolish man thinking that he might have a romantic interlude with the complainant”.
Morgan said Gautam accepted that he touched the complainant’s breast and tried to kiss her, but denies touching her genitals, and is defending the charges on the basis that he didn’t realise the complainant was not willing.
Today, he told the jury they might think this was a case of “two socially inept people who just got their wires a bit crossed”.
It’s alleged Gautam had given the woman a ride to his house on the pretence of offering a driving lesson, but instead drove his car straight into his garage and led her to his bedroom, after grabbing a bottle of wine and two glasses.
Both the Crown and defence delivered their closing statements to the jury this afternoon.
Judge Tini Clark will sum up the case tomorrow morning before sending the jury out to begin their deliberations.
Giving evidence in court today, in response to questioning from Morgan, Gautam said he took the complainant up to his room as he wanted to take her somewhere “intimate and private”.
Asked why he wanted to take her somewhere like that, Gautam said he thought “there was a possibility of having any sexual intimacy with her, so that was the reason I took her up to the bedroom”.
Morgan pressed him further on why he thought there was a possibility of sexual intimacy, and Gautam responded that he liked her.
“I was interested in her and having an affair with her, and I thought she was interested too.
“Because she didn’t express anything otherwise, that ‘I don’t want to be with you’.”
As the room was hot, he opened up the doors to the balcony where they stood for a few minutes.
Asked about the complainant’s comments that he’d mentioned having a gun, Gautam denied that, saying he didn’t own one.
They went back inside and sat on the bed again, with their legs up, resting against the pillows.
Gautam described the atmosphere as “friendly, relaxed ... like girlfriend, boyfriend”.
The pair of them were both red in the face, which he explained was from the heat of the room, so he asked the complainant if she wanted to take her top off.
He said she eventually did, and was left wearing a tank top.
She sat back down, and the pair had moved slightly closer. He had his hand on the bed, and she put her hand on his, and they chatted.
Gautam said he asked the complainant “several times” if she was okay, and was told “yeah”, and also nodded her head.
Asked how things progressed, Gautam said they had been holding hands and there was a feeling of companionship, “and no hesitation from her side”.
He then “slowly” put his hand on her shoulder and began giving her a massage.
As that went on, he said he gained confidence, so he then touched her stomach.
He was expecting to feel a piercing, and impressed that she didn’t have one, he commented that “I thought she was a traditional, simple, English woman, and I like that”.
In cross-examination from Crown prosecutor Amy Alcock, Guatam denied saying he was going to get her so drunk another time that she wouldn’t say no to him.
He also said the complainant never told him that she wanted to go home.
He asked if he could kiss her, and she turned, slightly smiled with her head down, and said, “Not on the lips”, so he kissed her on the cheek.
In questioning from Morgan, Gautam said he was now “excited, I was surprised, I was confused”.
“I couldn’t understand why she would be interested in me ... so I asked her expressly, ‘are you attracted to me in any way?’.
“She said, ‘Yes’, and she was looking down, and then she said, ‘You are a sincere and committed professional’.”
Shortly after this, thinking she was comfortable, “and she knew where this was going”, Gautam slowly put his hand down her top and felt her breasts.
“She looked at me, and [said] like, ‘Do you think it’s inappropriate?’.
“She had a little bit of a smile.”
He said he then took his hand out and apologised.
Gautam said the complainant told him that she was “all good”, and he didn’t touch her again.
Asked by Morgan about him trying to touch her breasts, and she repeatedly saying ‘no’, over a 20- to 30-minute period, Gautam said, “That is not correct”.
Noting that it was nearing sunset, Gautam said, he was then conscious of getting the complainant home before dark.
As he dropped her home, stopping short of her house, he said the complainant leaned over and gave him a “little peck on the cheek”.
Morgan told the jury they may think the defendant was foolish for thinking he could have a “romantic tryst” with the complainant, but that “does not make him guilty of indecent assault”.
“You may think that actually this was two socially inept people who just got their wires a bit crossed.”
He told them that for the Crown to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, they had to decide what the defendant was thinking at the time of the alleged offences.
“But if the defendant thought that what was occurring here was an honest belief, albeit a foolish one ... then that element of the charge of indecent assault is not proven.
“My client’s defence is that he believed that what was occurring was perfectly proper.
“It was not unwarranted, not untasteful; he just didn’t pick up on any unspoken cues from the complainant ... [she] didn’t tell him that she wanted to go, and he thought what was happening between the two was perfectly proper, albeit immoral.
“Everybody makes mistakes.”
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.