Crown alleges double rape of drunken teen

File photo / NZH

Two men say they had consensual sex with a 16-year-old girl in a Nelson camping ground, but the crown says the girl was so drunk the men had raped her.

None of the three know each other, and the girl has no memory of having sex with either of the men.

The men, who have name suppression, have both pleaded not guilty to rape charges at the start of a week-long jury trial in Christchurch District Court.

The men were aged 18 and 20 at the time.

Crown prosecutor Arpana Raj told Judge Gary MacAskill and a jury that the woman was in a drunken state and could not remember either the men or the alleged rapes.

She said the teen travelled to Nelson on December 29, 2009, and started drinking vodka when she got there.

She was put to bed in her tent in an intoxicated state by her friend, and later witnesses found her on the ground with one of the men.

She was taken to the ambulance tent at the camping ground and then to the police station and hospital.

The blood tests done on her showed she had enough alcohol to make her seven times over the legal driving limit for her age.

Miss Raj said if the teen was unconscious or in an extremely intoxicated state she could not have consented to sexual intercourse.

The teen told the court she remembered trying to find her way back to her tent but went to the wrong one. After that she could not remember how she got to her tent, or anything else that happened until she was in the police car going to the police station.

She could not remember making a statement there, and although she was taken to the hospital she thought the doctor had examined her at the police station.

The next day, at the camping ground, two women pointed out the man she was found on the ground with.

The medical tests showed that she had had sexual intercourse with another man that night as well.

In cross examination by Bill Dawkins, defence counsel for the man the crown says first had sex with her, the teen said she could not remember anything about him or what had happened.

Mr Dawkins told her that the man said they had been kissing and cuddling and she asked him to have sex with her. He told police that she was a willing participant, but in court she replied again that she couldn't remember.

She told Michael Starling, defence counsel for the other man, that she did not tell her parents what had happened until she got home after her holiday had finished, on January 3.

A woman witness told the court she went back to her campsite and saw a woman and man having sex on the ground nearby.

People were telling them to get a room, and shining a torch on them, she said.

She said the woman seemed to be enjoying it, but after a couple of minutes she was yelling at the man to get off her. Another man grabbed him and he ran off, she said.

The woman dressed the girl as she was naked and crying, and then she also ran off.

She saw the girl later in an ambulance and helped her fill in an ACC form with the ambulance officers, before she was taken by the police to the police station.

The trial is continuing.

- NZPA