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Home / New Zealand

Actor sex trial: 'Why didn't you say eff off you creep?' asks lawyer

Amelia Wade
By Amelia Wade
Political reporter·NZ Herald·
8 Dec, 2016 01:04 AM4 mins to read

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The acting coach accused of sex offences was teaching a woman to be "an actor, not a porn star", says the defence.

And, if the alleged offending actually happened, the woman would have known it was sexual assault and would have made it up, lawyer Ron Mansfield said.

But instead, she continued to return to the classes and even later had an affair with the married and well-known actor.

As the intense cross-examination of one of the alleged victims continues, Mansfield said the sexual assault claims were "nonsense".

The only sexual contact between the pair was during their brief relationship, he suggested.

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The woman did not agree, saying: "I did not make this up."

The man, who has name suppression, has denied 10 counts of indecent assault and two charges of sexual violation between 2010 and 2013 and is on trial at the Auckland District Court.

The Crown alleges the man was an acting coach at a modelling agency and approached four young women after group classes and invited them to one-on-one sessions where he sexually assaulted them.

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Did you say, 'Eff off you creep?

The woman has earlier said the man told her she showed potential and would benefit from a secret and private one-on-one session.

Over the course of six months, an exercise dubbed "Push/Pull" which involved reacting to each other's actions escalated to the point of alleged unwanted sexual contact.

The pair's relationship also became more intimate with the woman saying he became "a father figure" to her.

At one point, the woman described how the man took her to a storage room in the gym where the classes were held.

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The man allegedly forcibly removed her skinny jeans by undoing the button and had to "effectively peel" them down, along with her underwear, Mansfield said.

The defendant then allegedly performed oral sex on her "for a few seconds" before she pushed him off.

"Did you say eff off you creep?," asked lawyer.

"Unfortunately no," she said.

She believed the exercises were to help her be less sexually inhibited.

You were an actor, not a porn star

Mansfield said it was "complete nonsense, isn't it" that she was taken to a storage room and "anything like this happened" there.

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And, as an intelligent woman, she also would have realised that sexual activity was not part of the exercise or acting as a profession.

He was developing her "as an actor, not a porn star".

"You knew that. You know that now, you knew that then," Mansfield said.

"No, I didn't. I trusted [him], I looked up to him and I believed it."

Mansfield asked the woman why she would return and pay for more classes if she'd been sexually violated.

"It's a reflection of the hold he had on me," she said.

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"It simply didn't happen," replied the lawyer.

"It happened."

He suggested the only time there was oral sex was after they became romantically involved and were intimate in her parked car and at a motel.

"Not correct," the woman said.

He wouldn't leave his wife and you were hurt

Mansfield said after the man couldn't commit to her because he was married, she was "hurt and angry" and met with the three other complainants to discuss what they would tell police.

They made their stories seem "more serious and hence more believable", which she denied.

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You deleted the texts to hide true relationship

The lawyer also asked why the woman deleted all the texts and emails after their relationship, suggesting she did it to hide evidence of a "very consensual relationship" which happened behind closed doors.

But the woman said after learning he'd allegedly also assaulted other women, she ended the relationship, blocked his number and deleted all forms of communication because she didn't want anything to do with him anymore.

Is your evidence fabricated?

Crown prosecutor Claire Paterson asked the woman under re-examination what she meant when she told the court the line between right and wrong was blurred and that it was a confusing time.

She asked whether her evidence was fabricated.

"No, it's not fabricated."

Paterson also asked why the woman didn't leave the classes after the alleged offending.

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"I just trusted him and I looked up to him and I thought it was all part of the progress, like her was saying. I didn't want to let him down ... I was paying for these. I was trying to improve a hobby."

The woman has now finished giving evidence and the trial continues this afternoon.

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