Leading entertainment figure trial: Man a ‘creep’ and ‘sex addict’, complainant tells jury

A leading figure in the New Zealand entertainment industry is on trial at the High Court in Rotorua. Photo / Andrew Warner

A young woman who says she was indecently assaulted by a leading entertainment figure has told a High Court jury the man is a “creep” and a “sex addict”.

The man, who has interim name suppression until the end of his trial in Rotorua, has pleaded not guilty to 25 charges relating to serious sex and drug-related offending.

The offences relate to allegations the man either raped or sexually assaulted nine women on separate occasions over several years. On some occasions, the allegations are the man used illicit drugs before committing the offences.

The young woman giving evidence today was a teenager when she said she was indecently assaulted. She has denied suggestions from the man’s lawyer she was in a sexual relationship with the man before the night of the alleged offence.

It is the Crown’s case that while at a house with others, the man tried to kiss the young woman and asked to hold her hand, grabbed her forcefully and tried to push her into a nearby room. She resisted and struggled to make him stop.

The woman said earlier in her evidence the man went to her home in the weeks following the offence and poked a torch through the bedroom window. He then banged on the doors and windows while the young woman and her mother hid in the hallway.

The young woman’s mother videoed the incident and the video was played to the jury last week.

Under cross-examination by the man’s lawyer, Ron Mansfield KC, the woman admitted that prior to the incident she and another friend of the same age went to another city and the man paid for their hotel. She said she thought it would be okay because the man was staying in a different hotel.

She said the man supplied drugs and alcohol for her and her friend, including “doing lines” of what they thought was MDMA (ecstasy). The man later told her the drug was methamphetamine - something she was angry about as she said she would never touch that drug because it was “next level”.

The woman said she now knew what the man was like and said he had a controlling “weird power” because of who he was and felt he could do what he wanted with women. She said he was a “creep”.

“He was a sex addict. It is just fact.”

Mansfield suggested the man and young woman had sex while staying at the hotel out of town and on another occasion when he went to her house. The young woman said: “Absolutely not”.

Mansfield asked the young woman if it was correct the man had tried to kiss her and hold her hand on the night in question because it was “expected” because the pair had previously been engaging in sexual intercourse. The woman said no.

“I couldn’t care less about him and thought he was a creep.”

Mansfield suggested to the woman the pair would share flirtatious text messages, which the woman denied.

The woman said she would like to see those messages if it were true. Mansfield instead asked the woman if she still had messages on her phone, to which the woman said “no” as it was “five phones ago” and she longer had access to her Facebook messages.

When shown a text message supposedly from her, the young woman said it was “fake” as she did not send messages using commas and exclamation marks like that.

The trial is in its third week and was set to last at least six weeks. It is before Justice Layne Harvey and a jury of nine women and three men. Anna Pollett is appearing for the Crown.