Woman alleges men pressed for threesome

Waiouru Military Camp Photo/File

The trial of two soldiers accused of intimidating a woman into having a threesome in a Unimog at the Waiouru Army base began yesterday .

Keith Williams Cook and Michael Issac Galvin each pleaded not guilty to three charges of sexual violation and three charges of indecent assault alleged to have been committed on October 5, 2012.

The trial began at the Whanganui District Court before Judge David Cameron and a jury of eight women and four men.

In her interview with police, the 23-year-old complainant said she was on her way home from an Oktoberfest party at the sergeants' mess. She'd been there with her sister, brother in law, and a workmate.

She said she was walking through the camp in the early hours of the morning when the two men approached.

"I don't even really know where they came from," she said in a video of the interview, played in court as evidence.

The men had asked what she was doing and she said she was going home, and they continued walking with her.

The conversation started becoming "a bit creepy or weird," she said, "asking me questions like had I ever had a threesome with two guys before".

The complainant said she continued walking, trying to get the men to leave her alone, and said she wasn't interested in having a threesome with them.

"I just kept saying 'no. I just want to get home'."

When the three of them reached the Unimog, one of the men lifted her arm up above her head and began kissing her, then the other man joined in, she said.

The complainant said one of the men opened the Unimog doors and they helped her up into it.

"They didn't get forceful, it was kind of just more pushing. It made me feel scared, like I had to do it."

She said she told the men she didn't want to get into the truck, but the men guided her in, saying things such as: "Come on, it will be fine; it won't take long."

The complainant had got into the Unimog cab, with the men on either side of her.

It was then that the alleged offending happened, which included one of the men ripping her stockings and assaulting her.

She said she told the man to stop and that he was hurting her.

Eventually Cook insisted they stop, she said, and she tried to open the door to leave but couldn't.

She thought possibly the door had to be unlocked. Galvin then left, and the complainant continued walking home, with Cook following.

He insisted she hold his hand, she said.

"He was asking me if I was all right. He kept acting like a nice guy."

She said he told her she shouldn't be walking home by herself, and was saying things such as "how he could feel that I was screwed up inside and I was twisted. It was like he was trying to make it like it was my fault. I just told him to leave me alone."

The complainant said she wanted to get out her phone and call someone or run away but was scared he would become forceful.

After a while, Cook said he would leave and walked away.

She continued home, and her mother called the police.

Crown prosecutor Megan Jaquiery said the case was about two men making "huge assumptions, presumptions about her willingness to engage in sexual activity with them both at the same time".

Galvin's defence lawyer, Chris Tennet, said Galvin sent Cook two text messages as Cook was walking the complainant home. The first said "gutted bro I missed out ... " and the second said "Better have gotten her name and number so I can come up and we do that again", Mr Tennet said.

Cook's lawyer, Roger Crowley, told the jury the text messages were "so important".

He said there was "quite a bit of alcohol going down" on the night, and all three parties had been drinking.

The trial will continue today and is expected to go for four to five days.