Warning: Distressing content
A Christchurch woman says she woke up in the back seat of a car parked on Signal Hill as a man was raping her.
Yesterday before Judge Michael Turner in the Dunedin District Court, a jury of four women and eight men listened to the breathless 111 call made by the complainant in the early hours of December 24, 2022.
“I just got raped,” the woman said through broken sobs.
The defendant, a 20-year-old from Dunedin, pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual violation by rape and said while the woman had been “wobbly” the intercourse was consensual.
The complainant, who had been picked up from town by the defendant, exited the vehicle after the alleged violation and immediately called emergency services.
In a police interview, the woman described her vague recollections of being refused entry to a bar in the Octagon before meeting up with the man who she had previously been speaking with via Snapchat.
The pair had never met face to face, but decided to meet up to have some drinks. The woman says she does not remember the details of meeting the man or the drive to the Signal Hill lookout.
“My next memory was when we were in the back seat of his car and I just woke up from being passed out ... I just pretended I was still passed out because I didn’t know what to do,” the complainant said.
The man accused of rape says the intercourse was consensual and counsel Meg Scally admitted the Crown’s case was “quite confronting”.
The woman talked to police on multiple occasions and cross-examination showed she was unclear on how much she drank, whether the man had suggested consensual sex and whether she had moved to the back seat of her own volition.
“You have said you don’t remember a lot,” Crown prosecutor Marcail Brosnan said.
“What effect did alcohol have on your memory of that night?”
Asked by Scally whether it was possible she had communicated consent but may not remember, the woman said: “No. I was asleep, passed out.”
The defence case is that the pair had been chatting at the lookout before engaging in consensual intercourse.
The trial is set to continue today.
A 'committed advocate for women and New Zealand’s primary sector over many years'