In the High Court at Auckland, the man faces, and denies, one charge of sexual violation by rape. Photo / File
In the High Court at Auckland, the man faces, and denies, one charge of sexual violation by rape. Photo / File
Warning: Distressing content
A man has denied raping a woman in an Auckland motel room, which prosecutors say happened after she had earlier cried about wanting to go home.
The man - who has name suppression - is on trial before Justice Geoffrey Venning in the High Court at Auckland.
The defendant faces, and denies, one charge of sexual violation by rape.
In opening the case, Crown prosecutor Claire Paterson said the defendant and the complainant had met up for a date, first drinking at bars in Auckland's viaduct in April 2018.
She did not know how to get home, Paterson said, so she stayed in the room until the morning when he drove her to a supermarket carpark.
The prosecutor said the complainant did not want him to know exactly where she lived.
Defence lawyer Tiffany Cooper said it was consensual sexual activity or at least the defendant had reasonable grounds to believe it was.
She said the allegation was a fabrication.
Justice Geoffrey Venning, pictured last year, is presiding over the judge alone trial. Photo / File
'I didn't even want to go to the motel'
Today, the complainant gave evidence in the High Court trial recalling their Auckland date.
"He was saying how lucky he was to be on this date with me," she said.
He got quite serious, she said, and told her he could see her in a white dress.
"It was a very strange comment to make."
While out drinking the pair ended up kissing, the court heard.
After leaving the last bar in Mt Eden together in his car, he pulled up at a motel which he explained by saying all the bars would be closed, the court heard.
He said he had treated me "like a princess" paying for everything and told her she was "being ungrateful", she said.
As he got angrier he shouted, she said.
"I have never been shouted at like that before ever, by anyone," she said.
"I was really scared and upset."
The woman told the court she repeated that she wanted to go home.
She realised she had accidentally misplaced her handbag at the last bar they had visited, meaning she did not have her house keys or her wallet to pay for a taxi.
Cooper said the woman claimed she had said no earlier in the night but questioned whether she had ever said that again when the defendant began kissing her again.
