Accuser fell into my lap, says officer

A high-ranking officer charged with the historic rape of a colleague says she initiated the encounter at a party by falling into his lap on a couch and kissing him.

The officer, who is on trial in the High Court at Hamilton, is charged with raping the woman at a birthday party in 1984.

When interviewed by police the man said his female colleague, who was a probationary constable at the time, "staggered" or "fell" into his lap while he was sitting on a couch. He said she had appeared drunk, unsteady on her feet and her speech was affected.

"We started kissing on the couch and then she said something to the effect of 'let's go to bed'."

They went to her room where they undressed, got into bed and had sex.

When it was over he said the woman told him she had had too much to drink and needed to go to sleep.

He lay there for a short time before getting up and leaving. In his statement to inquiry head Detective Sergeant Phil Skoglund, the man said the pair had discussed the incident once. She had asked him if they had had sex. He said she thought they had but was not sure.

Two to three weeks later the man said he was at the woman's Rotorua home and gave her a full body massage after she told him she wanted one.

The Crown case was completed by prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk yesterday.

Opening the defence, Philip Morgan, QC, said the accused never denied having sex with the woman but it was consensual. "The accused had a belief he was having intercourse with a consenting woman."

He said absence of memory must not equate to absence of consent.

"Whether that was a sober consent or a drunken consent, a reluctant or tearful consent, a happy consent or an exuberant consent, it doesn't matter a jot, the issue is, was there consent at the time of the act?"