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A former Kiwi rugby league star will stand trial in the High Court for an alleged sex attack.
The player yesterday conceded through his lawyer Gary Gotlieb that he had a case to answer on three charges including rape, sexual violation and sodomy.
His alleged victim is a
37-year-old Auckland woman. Both the player and the woman have name suppression.
It is alleged the man sexually assaulted the woman in the Victoria Park area of cental Auckland after the pair were drinking at the Whiskey Bar, on nearby Ponsonby Rd.
Prosecutors say the former player raped and violated the woman in the back of his car, before throwing money at her and throwing her out of the vehicle.
It was revealed during the two-day Auckland District Court depositions, which finished early this afternoon, that the woman and her friends had been drinking heavily in a number of bars and restaurants prior to the attack, and that she had taken cocaine in the course of the evening.
The defendant has said the woman was "fully consenting to every action that happened".
In a statement to police in August last year, he said he met the woman for the first time that evening and she was "quite a bonnie sort of girl" with a "Kiwi-posh" accent -- "not the kind of girl I would go out with".
After socialising at the bar for an hour he and the woman went to the bar's back room where they were "snogging", "groping" and simulating sex.
"I thought it was getting a bit over the top what we were doing."
The defendant said the woman was groping him and at one point "had her leg up on the chair".
When asked by Detective Nicolas Bore why they went to the back room the defendant replied "I dunno, there's no reason.
"Why does anyone go in the back room? We were just socialising."
When asked if either the woman or defendant performed oral sex on each other there, the man said 'no'.
When he left the woman assumed they were both leaving together, he said.
She told the defendant she lived nearby but once in the car she told him she lived further away, so "we both agreed to pull into Victoria Park".
The defendant said the pair started "kissing and carrying on" and ended up in the back seat of the car.
When asked if he had intercourse with the woman the man replied "no, no sex.
"We came pretty close to it but no sex" but the woman performed oral sex on him, he said.
The defendant -- who is married -- eventually told her he did not want to carry on as he was feeling guilty.
The defendant said he drove her back to a taxi rank, gave her money for a taxi and drove home.
"She wasn't happy about me giving her money for a taxi.
"She was sulking" but not angry or distressed, he said.
Mr Bore showed the man a series of still photos from video surveillance in the bar and told the man he was clearly having oral sex with the woman, in the back room.
The man denied this and said "I haven't done anything wrong.
"The only thing wrong was what I have done to my wife."
The man said he did not think the woman's threats would lead to allegations of rape, thinking she would tell people he was "not a good person, not an honourable guy".
The man said injuries found after a medical examination of the woman "didn't come from me."
The man said at no point was he rough or aggressive and nor had he done anything wrong -- "apart for the fact I was being a complete tit".
Dr Anne Williamson, who performed the medical examination on the woman, told the court today the woman had told her she had "rough sex in a car" which she "did not want".
Dr Williamson said there was evidence of bruising, swelling and ripping in the genital and anal areas which indicated moderate injuries sustained by recent forceful pressure.
Under cross-examination Dr Williamson said the woman was sure of having sexual intercourse and that he had ejaculated inside her.
There were no traces of semen found in the samples taken from the woman and no signs of any drugs.
The former player was remanded on bail to a High Court call-over on May 9.
- additional reporting NZPA
