The Crown alleges the defendant used illicit drugs on some of the women before offending against them sexually.
It is the Crown’s case he used his position in the entertainment industry to get what he wanted from women, despite being married.
The defence has called the case a “MeToo fest” and said while the man admits to doing drugs and having sex with other women, that was the nature of the industry and everyone was doing it.
Lawyer Ron Mansfield KC said his client was popular and he did not need to ply women with drugs and alcohol to get them to have sex with him.
Some details of the case and names of those involved cannot be reported because the defendant has interim name suppression until at least the end of the trial.
Under questioning from Crown Solicitor Anna Pollett, the woman said she and the man were on a work trip when she became “uncomfortable” because he had booked one room for them to share.
“I thought we were going to go to sleep, get up and I’d go straight back to... my family.”
She said she woke up in the middle of the night to find the man in her bed.
“He’d come in behind me and basically spooned me,” she said.
“[I told him to] get out. He listened the first time.”
Later in the night, the woman said she woke to find the man in her bed again.
“That time I was scared. I just let him lay there and hold me.”
After the incident, the woman said the man started “spoiling” her with expensive gifts and “lavish meals”.
“He bought me a pair of expensive shoes.”
Some months later, the two began a relationship.
“I think it was more like putting a title on it,” the woman said.
“It was something he had been pushing. It was something I think he fantasised [about] having a wife and having a girlfriend.”
The woman said her relationship with the man was never “steady”.
“We had multiple breaks. At the end of the day, it was an affair.”
On one occasion after she had “hooked up” with another man, the woman said the defendant locked her into her home.
“I wasn’t to leave until he got the answers he needed.”
The woman told the jury the man organised to have her children picked up from school “because he wasn’t done” with speaking to her.
“He said we were going to smoke [P] then and there and we were going to talk about it.”
She said she didn’t know how much P she smoked that day. The man had brought about a gram of the drug to her home.
On another occasion, the woman said the man “shoved” a pill into her mouth.
“I’m pretty sure it was ecstasy-based or speed-based. It was a rock.”
The woman said the drug took effect within 10 minutes.
“It blew my socks off. All I wanted to do was go for a swim. I was out the gate. I couldn’t control myself.”
The woman will continue to give evidence tomorrow, when she will also be cross-examined by the counsel appearing for the defendant.
The trial, before Justice Layne Harvey and a jury of nine women and three men, has entered its fifth week and is set down for at least six weeks.
Maryana Garcia is a regional reporter writing for the Rotorua Daily Post and the Bay of Plenty Times.
