Police rape trial: Behaviour of drunken cops at Northland motel 'was a recipe for disaster'

The accused officer is on trial for sexual violation and indecent assault charges in the Auckland District Court. Photo / File

With a sense of entitlement a police officer crept across a motel courtyard and into the room of a sleeping colleague where he "helped himself" and raped her, says a prosecutor.

The trial of a police officer accused of indecently assaulting and sexual violating his female workmate at a Kerikeri motel during the early hours of February 5 last year is coming to an end.

The accused, who has interim name suppression, was one of dozens of officers deployed to help police patrol Waitangi Day events at the Treaty Grounds last year.

Today, the Auckland District Court jury is hearing the final arguments from the lawyers in the case after listening to nearly two weeks of evidence.

Crown prosecutor Fiona Culliney said the accused "helped himself" to his colleague as she lay sleeping after earlier indecently assaulting her when the two were alone in a room.

"And since then he has covered up what he has done," Culliney continued. "There is only one word to describe what he has done that night, and that is rape, he has raped her."

The prosecutor told the jury the complainant had been "absolutely honest, right from the start".

"Right from those moments caught on the recording," Culliney said.

In the dark motel room, after she "woke to pain", the complainant reached for her phone and began recording a video.

A one minute and 50 second interaction was recorded between her and the accused.

"I've denied you earlier, and I've woken up to you ****ing me," she can be heard crying.

The defendant, Culliney said, attempted to manipulate and confuse his workmate.

He claims on the recording that nothing happened but now argues any sexual contact was consensual and a "pre-arranged hook-up".

"There was no pre-arranged meeting," Culliney said.

The recording, she added, is "absolutely devastating" for the accused cop and leads to "the inescapable conclusion" of guilt.

CCTV footage shows the accused officer "creeping" across the motel courtyard at 2.34am and slowly opening the ranch slider door of the complainant's room.

"With a sense of entitlement, which he quite clearly has, he crept into her room and he raped her," Culliney said. "He decided he was going to get what he wanted."

Culliney said the complainant was in a motel with "30-odd cops" - "there's police cars everywhere".

"She had every right to feel safe there, as did everyone else.

"Who would rape a police officer? With so many police officers around? He would do that!" Culliney said, raising her voice and pointing at the accused sitting just a few metres away.

The defendant, Culliney explained to the jury, also offered "fabricated evidence".

"He hid evidence, he was dishonest and he lied, members of the jury, and he did all that because he is guilty of the charges he faces."

The accused had sent the female officer Snapchat messages earlier in the evening, however, before she had a chance to open them he deleted the social media app.

He also deleted the complainant as a contact and despite the NZ Police serving a warrant on Snapchat with the help of the FBI the message's contents have vanished.

Making a final argument before the jury for his client, Paul Borich QC simply said: "You cannot be sure."

"If anything the evidence points the opposite way," he said.

Borich said Culliney's use the terms "helped himself", "satisfying himself" and "a sense of entitlement" were direct appeals to the jurors emotions.

But he said such language doesn't have anything to do with the trial.

Just because it is 2020 and the complainant is a woman, Borich said, doesn't mean they are granted "a special status".

"We are at a point in our history where sexual abuse is a very hot topic," he said. "Anyone who questions a victim is called a victim blamer ... I could talk to you about people's lives and false complaints ... People's lives, marriages and careers being ruined by false complaints."

Paul Borich QC, who is representing the accused officer, has argued any sexual activity was a "pre-arranged hook-up". Photo / Doug Sherring

Borich said there was "kissing, cuddling and touching" between the two officers, but it was consensual.

"A consent given and later regretted is still consent," he said.

"You can't consent to anything while you are asleep, but what the defence says to you is this 'I'm asleep' is a fiction."

Borich said the complainant's version of events was "unlikely in a way that is extreme".

Given the high concentration of police officers at the motel and by the complainant's account, Borich said, the accused displayed "serious confidence, moxie, and bravado".

"An extraordinary set of circumstances and bravado if it is true."

Borich said his client's panicked deletion of the Snapchat message and app at 4.11am "has to be the dumbest thing he has ever done".

"Who pre-messages their victim?" Borich asked. "He's done some stupid things ... but deleting that Snapchat has to be the dumbest.

"He's deleted, you might think, defence exhibit one."

Borich said both the accused and the complainant have lied about what really happened that night.

"They both lie for the same reasons," he said, adding they were desperate to save themselves from embarrassment, career and family consequences.

The jury's job, Borich explained, was to make a legal judgment - not a moral one.

"It's tempting isn't it, when you sit and listen to all of this evidence, to find moral judgments"

But Borich urged the jurors to leave such stones to be cast by the accused's family and friends.

"He has messed up, he has messed up badly, but not in a legal sense."

Police had also failed both officers, Borich told the jury.

"What happened up there was not good, it was not good," he said. "It was a recipe for disaster, is it any wonder we now have this mess to sort out?"

CCTV footage from the night - played to the court - has revealed lewd behaviour by several cops staying at the motel, including a senior sergeant exposing himself and a drinking game using a hollowed-out police baton.

The accused officer was stood down after the allegations emerged and a separate employment investigation will be conducted, Auckland's Detective Superintendent Dave Lynch has said.

Northland's Detective Inspector Rhys Johnston yesterday told the court the employment investigations into some of the other officers at the motel have concluded.

"The conduct of some of the people involved fell well short of expectations," he said.

An application to continue the accused officer's interim name suppression was declined by Judge Evangelos Thomas but the decision has been appealed and suppression will continue until the challenge can be determined.

The trial is expected to conclude this week.

Judge Evangelos Thomas is presiding over the trial. Photo / Sam Hurley