Kiwi accused of UK sex attack

Justin von Tunzelman. Photo / Supplied

A Kiwi investment banker living in London took advantage of a married woman who had passed out after a night of drinking cocktails, a British court has been told.

The Daily Telegraph reported that Justin von Tunzelman, 37, a client manager with an asset management firm called P-solve, is accused of taking his clothes off and stripping the unconscious woman, whose name is suppressed.

In 2004, von Tunzelman was named in the New Zealand Herald's movers and shakers column when he moved to London to take up a position at Russell Investments.

On Wednesday, the Daily Telegraph reported evidence put to the Southwark Crown Court that the woman he allegedly assaulted had drunk about four champagne cocktails and 10 shots of a cocktail called "Slippery Nipples", made from sambuca and Bailey's, at a Soho pub that was giving out free drinks.

Von Tunzelman had been drinking Heineken and was not one of the patrons the barman considered too drunk to serve.

At the end of the function, the woman's colleagues decided she was too drunk to get home so they put her to sleep under a duvet on a sofa at von Tunzelman's office which was nearby.

When they went back to check on her, they allegedly found von Tunzelman and the woman naked on the sofa, the court heard. He then tried to put her clothes back on.

The next day, friends told the victim what they had seen. The police were informed at the insistence of her husband.

Southwark Crown Court was told that neither von Tunzelman, who had a girlfriend, nor his victim remembered the assault.

The Daily Mail reported that Lesley Jones, for the prosecution, told jurors that von Tunzelman took advantage of the woman when she was "unable to say yes or no to what was happening to her and he didn't think he would be caught".

"It was more than a deep sleep. She was passed out and she was comatose."

Other partygoers allegedly saw him showing an "overt" interest in the woman during the evening, and he was later spotted touching her breasts, her top pushed up, as they sat in an alcove of the pub, Ms Jones said.

Von Tunzelman denies two counts of sexual assault and claims that he suffered a complete loss of memory, having been very drunk on lager.

According to the Daily Mail, Ruth Jones, defending, said the case was certainly unusual, because neither the defendant nor the complainant had given any account of what happened.

"The alleged victim learned of the suspected attacks from friends, who painted a 'pessimistic picture'," she told the jurors. "You can't convict because you think he might have been up to no good."

The trial continues.