Hāwera man John Paul Smith found guilty of rape in game of truth, dare, or command

John Paul Smith raped a woman during a game of truth, dare or command. Photo / 123rf

WARNING: This story contains details of sexual offending

When a man asked a younger, vulnerable woman to play a game of “truth, dare, or command”, he had one thing on his mind - sex.

And while that was what the game eventually led to, it was not consensual.

John Paul Smith, of Hāwera, South Taranaki, had warned the woman, whom he knew, that the rules of the game meant she was not allowed to back out.

She had agreed to play, not really understanding the game or Smith’s intentions, and it began seemingly harmless.

But by the end of the evening, the woman, in her early 20s, was left shaking and crying after being sexually assaulted and raped by Smith, who was in his mid-30s.

“I couldn’t pull out ‘cause it was a command,” she told a police detective.

The March 11, 2022, incident was the focus of a judge-alone trial held in New Plymouth District Court last week.

John Paul Smith's judge-alone trial was heard in New Plymouth District Court. Photo / Tara Shaskey

Smith was defending seven charges - two of rape, two of indecent assault, and three of unlawful sexual connection - relating to the woman.

He argued that all of the sexual activity was consensual.

‘I just cried myself to sleep’

In a recorded interview with police detective Pat Montagna-Hay that was played to the court, the woman said she and Smith met at a location in Hāwera to have a cigarette together that evening.

They planned to walk to Smith’s vehicle parked nearby and the woman would drive it, as she was sober.

Once they got into the vehicle, they drove to the town’s cemetery and parked up to have another cigarette.

Smith then asked if she wanted to play a game, and suggested “truth, dare or command”, to which she agreed.

The woman explained to Montagna-Hay that command meant a person commanded “you to do whatever they want you to do”.

“And what happens if you don’t,” Montagna-Hay asked.

“There’s no backing out,” the woman responded.

Judge Russell Collins found John Paul Smith guilty on all seven charges. Photo / NZME

She said in the first round of the game she chose truth and Smith asked her if she agreed that “whatever happens in the car, stays in the car”.

“I said ‘yeah’ ‘cause I didn’t really understand the game.”

The woman said Smith then chose truth and she asked him if she was safe. “He said ‘yeah’.”

After a couple of rounds, which saw the woman take off her jacket and hoodie and Smith perform a “funny” dance, the pair drove to a nearby house so the woman could use the toilet.

They then went for another drive, with Smith taking her to the “back roads” of the town and parking the car.

She explained that the game resumed and he ‘commanded’ her to perform a sex act.

“I broke down and cried ‘cause I didn’t wanna do it. But I couldn’t pull out ‘cause it was a command.”

She said Smith asked if she was okay and she shook her head. The sex assault continued.

The woman said she didn’t know where they were parked and it was too dark to run.

She said Smith later apologised because he felt he may have hurt her.

“Which he did,” she told Montagna-Hay.

“I went home after that and I just cried myself to sleep.”

She said she did not want any of the sexual activity to take place and repeatedly told Smith to “stop”.

“He didn’t say anything but he also didn’t stop.”

Under cross-examination, defence counsel Julian Hannam suggested that if she did not want to partake, she could have just told him.

“Tell a drunk person?” she asked.

“Yes,” Hannam responded.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said.

‘I didn’t hear her say ‘stop’ at all’

Smith opted to give evidence in his defence during which he denied the woman had told him to stop at any point and he believed it was all consensual.

He also could not recall the woman crying during the sexual activity but said she was shaking and crying after.

Smith acknowledged apologising to the woman at that point and said it was because she was upset but he was unsure why.

He went home to his wife following the encounter with the woman.

When asked in court to explain the game the pair played, Smith said: “You can’t back out of a command”.

“I explained the rules to her and she agreed to the rules.”

The sexual assault took place in Hāwera in 2022.

Smith also claimed he had asked the woman if he could have sex with her before he proceeded and she had agreed.

“I didn’t hear her say ‘stop’ at all. If she did say ‘stop’, I would have stopped because I’m not that type of person.”

Smith said he saw the woman the following day and she “seemed fine”.

On the day of the incident, Smith had drunk the majority of an 18-box of Codys, bourbon and cola, while the woman had not drunk much at all.

He described himself as an alcoholic and becoming “possessed” and “a different person when he drinks”. He said alcohol affects his memory.

Under cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Holly Bullock said it was convenient Smith had managed to recall every detail of that evening.

He accepted he had sex on his mind when he met up with the woman, and that he instigated the game and turned it sexual.

But he refuted he made up that he got the woman’s permission before having sex, as suggested by Bullock.

‘Real memories from real events’

On the third day of the trial, Judge Collins considered the evidence and returned with guilty verdicts to all seven charges.

The judge accepted all of the woman’s evidence for several reasons including: that she was not intoxicated; there was no discernible reason why she would make up the allegations; she stayed firm when challenged; most of the narrative she gave was not disputed; and it was full of admissions against her interests, such as she never alleged physical resistance.

Her narrative was “real memories from real events”, he said, adding she was vulnerable with a history of trauma and questioned if she was safe with the accused.

The judge believed she was incapable of constructing the narrative she reported.

He rejected Smith’s evidence on the matters in dispute, finding the woman had been crying during the sexual activity, not just afterwards, and that Smith was indifferent to her feelings and carried on.

He said the game of truth, dare, or command was a child’s game.

Smith only played it to manipulate matters, leaving it implausible that he would ask for her consent.

“He set out this night to have sex with this young woman.”

Smith was remanded into custody ahead of his sentencing on April 14.

Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff covering crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.