Ferrad Abrahams and a second man, who has interim name suppression, each face one charge of rape.
The unnamed man also faces a second charge for trying to have oral sex with the woman, who was in her early twenties at the time.
Opening the case, Crown prosecutor Kristy Li said Abrahams, then 41, and the other man took turns raping the woman after a house party one evening in October 2017.
The young woman started feeling hot, dizzy and tired after finishing a drink she had left on the counter when she was in the bathroom, Li told the jury. She was falling asleep when the men offered her cocaine to wake up, which she took but still felt tired.
The trio then went to the second man's flat where they had more drinks and lines of cocaine.
Still feeling tired, the woman went to lie down on the second man's bed, taking off her top so she could wear it to work the following day. She had just started a new job, the court heard.
After that, the Crown alleges, the men took turns to rape the woman when she was trying to sleep, and the second man also tried but failed to make her perform oral sex on him.
Both men were bigger than the woman, who "could not just tell them to stop," the prosecutor said.
"[She] was intoxicated and tired, trying to sleep. There was no discussion of sex or flirting," Li said.
"Consent has to be true and free consent... Just because she was tired and dizzy and went to sleep on [the second man's] bed doesn't mean she was consenting to sex."
Li said the woman finally went home crying at five or six o'clock in the morning. "I sat in the shower for a long, long time trying to process everything," she told police in the recorded interview played in closed court.
She told police she felt embarrassed, betrayed and sad after that night. "You don't think your friends would do something like that... even if he didn't think we were good friends."
She did not tell anyone for some time, until she told her boyfriend in an argument that she had been "gang-raped".
Defence lawyers for both men claimed the sex was consensual.
"When her boyfriend broke up with her, she was angry - that's what led to her police complaint," said Abrahams' lawyer Dale Dufty. "Not that she was raped."
"They had drinks, drugs, and uninhibited sex," he said.
The trial continues.
SEXUAL HARM
Where to get help:
If it's an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
If you've ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone, contact
Safe to Talk
confidentially, any time 24/7:
• Call 0800 044 334
• Text 4334
• Email support@safetotalk.nz
• For more info or to web chat visit
safetotalk.nz
Alternatively contact your local police station -
click here for a list.
If you have been sexually assaulted, remember it's not your fault.
