Prostitute tells of free sex with cop

A prostitute has described how she provided free sex to a policeman, sometimes in a police car, because she was afraid of what he could do to her.

"He could have arrested me for something ... set me up for something. That's why I was too scared to say anything," the woman, whose name cannot be published, told the High Court at Christchurch.

The 35-year-old woman was giving evidence against former Christchurch policeman Nathan Thorose Connolly, who is on trial for bribery and inducing sex from the woman with threats arising from the power of his occupation.

Connolly has admitted visiting the woman for sex, initially paying her for her services.

The prosecution says after the woman learned Connolly was a policeman, he checked her records on the computer, and used the threat of fines and his power over her to get the free sex. But Connolly says he never made any demands of the woman, and she may have found it "kinky" to have sex with him in a police car.

The woman told the court she was driving one night around December 2006 in her unregistered car with no warrant of fitness and only a learner's driver licence, when Connolly pulled her up in his police car.

"He said: 'I could give you a grand's worth of tickets, and get your car towed."'

Getting her car towed meant she wouldn't be able to get to work.

"He just wanted me to follow him. I sort of had a fair idea of what he wanted me to do. I was quite shocked because he was a cop, and I felt quite trapped and I didn't know what to do."

She said she got into Connolly's police car and was driven to the outskirts of Christchurch, where they had sex in the car. The issue of payment did not come up as it had previously.

Asked by Crown prosecutor Anne Toohey why she did not raise it, the woman said: "Because I was too scared to. Because he was a cop."

"I was just shocked and embarrassed and wished it didn't happen."

The woman said she got registration and a warrant of fitness soon after "so that if he pulled me up again I wouldn't have to do anything".

But the woman said Connolly visited her again between December 2006 and September 2007, while in police uniform, to have unpaid sex with her.

Connolly's lawyer, Jonathan Eaton, said his client was riddled with guilt and shame at what he had done, but his behaviour was not criminal.

The prostitute had continued to do "jobs" with him, and never complained about not receiving money.

Ms Toohey said Connolly lied to his superiors when confronted about the relationship, telling them he had been developing her into a police informant.

The trial is expected to continue until Monday.