She said she was drugged and raped. He denied it. ALISON HOORWOOD looks at a trial that has drawn attention to what a prosecutor called "the new scourge."
The last thing she remembers was climbing into a cab and slamming the door.
When Felicity came to on Saturday morning, she was lying naked on a stranger's bed.
Near the bed, stacked in a neat pile, was her clothing from the evening before - black jacket, pinstripe skirt, underwear, and also jewellery that she had not removed for years.
Next to her was Glenn Hooker, an information technology specialist.
Well-dressed, good looking and the son of a church minister, he had approached her in the street the night before using a bogus pick-up line about being an Aucklander who needed to be shown around a few bars.
She asked him: "Did we have sex?"
"Yes," was the reply.
For the seven hours between getting into the cab and waking up, she remembered nothing except a vague sensation of feeling wet and warm.
What happened that night was the centre of a court case that has rekindled debate on the problem of date rape.
Police found Rivotril tablets in Hooker's bedroom, but there was no scientific evidence that it was administered to Felicity. By the time she went to the police, it was too late for tests to pick up if there had been drugs in her system.
Felicity complained that she had been drugged and raped. Hooker denied it.
Hooker said they hit it off, had some drinks and had consensual sex. He said he behaved like a perfect gentleman.
Felicity said she noticed her champagne was "soapy," felt strange and remembered nothing of the night before.
The judge told a jury in the High Court at Wellington that it had to decide whether her memory loss was caused by the combination of alcohol and Rivotril, which contains clonazepam, an anti-anxiety drug Hooker had been prescribed, or was the result of a long and convivial evening of alcohol and little food.
On Tuesday night, after deliberating for eight hours, the jury returned a unanimous verdict - not guilty.
In his closing address, crown prosecutor Mark O'Donaghue described drug rape as "a new and sinister form of rape. The new scourge."
But Hooker's lawyer, Dr Donald Stevens, said Hooker and Felicity went drinking, "hit it off," danced in hip-grinding manner and had sex as two consenting adults.
Her feelings of being drugged were nothing more than a combination of alcohol, strobe lights, a powerful dance rhythm and the excitement of a new man.
He said Felicity made a false complaint because she was drunk and felt guilty about having a one-night stand.
"This sort of situation happens every Friday and Saturday night in Wellington. People sleep together, can't remember anything and and regret having sex - but that is not rape."
Other New Zealand cases of stupefying have been clear cut.
Four years ago, two Wellington men, James Bennett and Grant Moss, were found guilty of involvement in the drugging, rape and abduction of two prostitutes four years ago.
Just three months ago, house painter David Shepherd was found guilty in Christchurch of using the drug GBL and alcohol to stupefy two teenage girls before raping them.
One 13-year-old had pleaded with her mother to not make her babysit for Shepherd again. She was told she had no choice. She had promised to look after Shepherd's children during the December 1999 school holidays and her mother was not going to let her back out.
What the mother did not know was that every time her daughter went to Shepherd's home she was plied with bourbon, cannabis, and liquid Ecstasy - and then raped.
Her 14-year-old friend, who also babysat for Shepherd, one night drank nine shots of bourbon after the 34-year-old threatened to pour it down her throat. After vomiting, she was told to strip and ended up naked in Shepherd's bed, where he raped her twice.
On another babysitting trip, the girls where given a cola drink containing several drops from a little brown bottle - Shepherd called it a "liquid trip."
Dubbed "the Candyman" by crown prosecutor Jane Farish, Shepherd was convicted on 15 charges, including four of rape, one of sexual violation and five of stupefying the girls.
But date-rape among partying people is a much more difficult crime to detect and prosecute, says the head of the Wellington organised crime squad, Detective Senior Sergeant Paul Berry. Being able to prove date rape can come down to forensic evidence of drugs in blood or urine.
"It is essential that if someone wakes up and thinks they may have had non-consensual sex and may have been drugged, either come to us quickly or get medical advice which includes not only STD check-ups but blood and urine tests," said Detective Senior Sergeant Berry.
But confusion and memory gaps often mean people do not seek help immediately or go to a doctor soon enough.
A crown witness at the Hooker trial, associate professor of pharmacology Carl Burgess, said that although the complainant had no memory, she might have been capable of making a rational decision and just not remember it.
If she could not remember anything, it was Hooker's word against hers about whether she consented to sex or was in a mental and physical state to give informed consent.
Rape Crisis centres believe date rape is more prevalent than police think. Many victims do not want to press charges or talk to the police. Many are not sure what occurred.
National spokeswoman Jackie Russell-Green says: "We hear of a lot of situations where women wake up and have no recollection of what happened."
Although she is wary of giving safety advice to women - because it implies that they are solely responsible for their own safety - she says it pays not leave drinks unattended. Buy them yourself and, when out drinking, stick with people you trust.
Despite the difficulties of date-rape trials, rape is clear cut, she says. "Informed consent is an active thing, it is not just the absence of saying no."
Although police know of only a handful of drug rape cases in New Zealand, it is endemic in the United States and increasing in Australia.
In the first five months of this year, 20 women in Queensland alone complained of being drugged in nightclubs. The state government is planning laws imposing five years' jail on the manufacturers and sellers of date-rape drugs.
An American expert on the date-rape drug Rohypnol said that while it was being increasingly used to stupefy people in sexual assault cases, it was also an increasingly common club drug.
"I'm documenting people that were partying with it, now ending up in treatment," said Dr Jane Maxwell, chief of research at the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse.
The problem was that Rohypnol had a paradoxical effect on users. It could be used to put someone to sleep but it could also be a stimulant in a club setting.
"If you're in a party setting where there's lots of music and action and everybody's dancing and having a big time, if you take Rohypnol and mix it with beer for a couple of hours you'll get high."
Dr Maxwell said those who used Rohypnol to party often suffered memory loss.
"We've heard people report waking up with a bloody nose or a skinned knee and you don't remember what happened to you. You're also going to lose coordination - some people call it run, trip and fall."
Rohypnol is not legally available on prescription in New Zealand.
In the Hooker case, it was Rivotril that was at the centre of allegations.
Rivotril - an anti-anxiety drug - is in the same drug family, benzodiazepines as Rohypnol - also known by its streetnames of Roofies, Roachies, or the "forget me drug."
Whatever happened that night in Wellington when Felicity met Hooker, one thing is certain. Even if memories are vague or non-existent, neither can forget what followed.
After the jury returned, Hooker's lawyer said his client was an innocent man who had been through a terrible ordeal.
But the publicity given to the trial achieved something. During the hearing, three women contacted police in Wellington to say they had been drug raped.
Felicity's night out: focus on drug rape
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