A leading figure in the New Zealand entertainment industry is on trial in the High Court at Rotorua. Photo / Andrew Warner
A defence witness in the High Court trial of an entertainment figure claims to have made a secret recording at a party after overhearing a rape complainant’s friend describing how they scripted a story to tell police.
The witness is giving evidence in the Rotorua trial of a man facing 25 charges including rape, sexual assault and drug-related offending.
The charges relate to nine women who have complained to police about alleged incidents they say happened over several years.
The defendant has interim name suppression until at least the end of the trial. Some details relating to the case, including specifics and names of some witnesses, can’t be published for legal reasons.
The trial is in its 11th week and the defence case continued today.
The witness was giving evidence relating to a complainant who had earlier told the jury she went back to the defendant’s hotel room with the defendant, the witness and the witness’ then-girlfriend.
The complainant claimed the defendant spiked her drink and raped her after the witness and girlfriend had left.
The witness, who said he was a good friend of the defendant, said under questioning from defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC that after the defendant was charged, he heard his former girlfriend talking at a party about how she and the complainant had scripted a story about what had happened in the hotel room.
The witness said he was shocked by what he heard. He talked to his sister, who was also at the party, and they arranged for his sister to talk to his ex-girlfriend while the witness secretly recorded her.
The video was played to the jury but what she was saying could not be heard clearly. The jury was given a transcript, which the Rotorua Daily Post has requested.
The witness said what she said before he “hit record” was “worse”.
“She was not realising she was playing with someone’s life.”
Crown Solicitor Anna Pollett asked him if was it true his former girlfriend was earlier saying she and the complainant got together to “make a story”.
The witness said “yes”, saying it was like they “pre-scripted it”.
Relating to the night of the alleged offences, the witness said it was not possible for the complainant’s drink to have been spiked by the defendant in the hotel room because four of them were in the tiny space and he would have been seen.
He said when he and his girlfriend decided to leave the hotel room, the complainant did not want to leave.
He said the woman was “on and off” with her husband at the time but she demanded she wanted to stay.
He said the complainant had been drinking and was having a good time but was conscious. He said if she had been too drunk, he would have “carried her to the taxi” and made sure she went home.
The witness said he had been drinking but was not drunk.
“I was halfway drunk. I am not really the one that likes to bend it.”
He said his then-girlfriend and her friend - the complainant - had been drinking.
“She [the girlfriend] likes to chug them back. When the girls are out they like to empty it, eh.”
The witness told Pollett he used to use drugs including marijuana, methamphetamine and ecstasy but denied he did drugs with the defendant. He admitted he had had a problem with methamphetamine and used it for a number of years. He said it was a bad drug and he did not recommend it.
The witness said when police went to his house to interview him, they were making jokes about the complaints and saying things suggesting they were going to bring the defendant down.
“I was thinking it’s pretty full on, that. You are already judging him.”
He said the police were “throwing cheap shots” at the defendant so he told police the defendant was a “decent bloke”.
Pollett asked the witness if he did things such as trying to make secret recordings and lying on the witness stand to protect his friend.
“What I am putting to you is that you are just doing anything you can for your mate.”
The witness denied this.
In total, the defendant has pleaded not guilty to 10 charges of indecent assault, four of sexual violation by rape, three of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, two of attempted sexual violation, two of burglary, one of assault with intent to commit sexual violation, one of supplying MDMA, one of supplying methamphetamine and one of willfully attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The trial, before Justice Layne Harvey and a jury of nine women and three men, continues.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.