KEY POINTS:
An Auckland constable was yesterday found guilty of indecently assaulting a woman after climbing uninvited into her bed following a drunken Waihi party last year.
In Tauranga District Court a jury took just over three hours to return the verdict against Alisdair Bruce Aylwin, 36, a father of two young daughters. He will be sentenced before Christmas.
Crown evidence was that he got into a single bed where the sleeping complainant was "crashed out". Both were heavily intoxicated.
When the woman woke before daylight, she said she found a man in her bed with his hand inside her underpants, touching her indecently.
But the defence argued that Aylwin briefly caressed her bare stomach above her knickers with no sexual intent. When the complainant pushed his hand away, that was "the end of it".
In his closing address, prosecutor Rob Ronayne said the jury needed to look at all the circumstances leading up to that moment.
Aylwin was not known to the woman, he had earlier been told by a friend that she was in a happy sexual relationship and had a child, and there was "not a hint" of any lead-up by way of flirtation, conversation or encouragement.
Mr Ronayne said the complainant had been put to bed by her host, who closed the door.
Uninvited, Aylwin later entered the woman's room. He saw she was asleep and clambered into her bed.
The accused had shown an almost arrogant attitude that the woman was "there for the taking", said Mr Ronayne.
- NZPA
