Leading entertainment figure trial: Defendant admits having up to 40 affairs

A leading entertainment figure on trial for serious sexual offences has told a jury he’s slept with up to 40 other women while married - but says every sexual encounter was consensual.

The man is on trial in the High Court at Rotorua, where he is defending 25 charges including rape, sexual assault and drug-related offending.

The charges relate to nine women over several years. The man has interim name suppression until at least the end of the trial - which has now entered its ninth week.

The man has taken the stand to give evidence in his defence, going into details about his affairs and illicit drug use.

He said he had been “clean” from drugs and alcohol because it was part of his bail conditions, but he was glad the conditions were imposed.

“It feels good to be sober.”

The defendant said he now spent quality time with his family - something his lifestyle didn’t allow him to do previously.

He said his mental health had also improved.

When asked by his lawyer, Ron Mansfield KC, about how many casual sexual relationships with other women he has had, the defendant said about 30 or 40.

He said during those years he was constantly in the party scene and the lifestyle then was the equivalent of Tinder now.

A leading figure in the New Zealand entertainment industry is on trial in the High Court at Rotorua. Photo / Andrew Warner

“[We] would meet people, hang out, flirt and have sex... I was caught up in the lifestyle. I was married and acting single.”

Earlier in the defence case’s opening, lawyer Hannah Stuart was critical of the police’s investigation, saying police should have requested all phone information from the complainants as it had done with the defendant.

The defendant said while giving evidence this week he would delete all of the messages he was sent by the various women because his wife was checking his phone.

However, he kept some messages and photos, and videos sent to him by one of the women he had an affair with. That woman was also a complainant.

The defendant told the jury he wished now he had kept all the messages.

“I would be able to prove the false allegations now.”

Mansfield asked the defendant why he had sex with so many different women.

The defendant said it was normal for the industry.

Mansfield asked the defendant if he would ever have sexual contact with a woman who was intoxicated or unable to give consent or if they didn’t want it to happen. He replied: “Definitely not.”

He described a couple of occasions when he was turned down after trying to kiss women and although he felt embarrassed, he left.

The defendant was also questioned about his drug use. He said when he started out, he was working long hours and used methamphetamine to keep awake.

He later started using cocaine and would use a mix of both.

He estimated he would use a gram of cocaine a week, costing about $500, and a “point” (0.1g) of methamphetamine, costing between $200 and $250.

He would also use ecstasy or MDMA on occasion, but not while he was working.

He said the drugs meant he was able to be sociable and awake and he preferred cocaine over methamphetamine as it was seen as being “classier”.

When asked who else was doing drugs, the defendant said it seemed everyone was.

He said probably 75 to 80 per cent of those in the industry were doing drugs.

Mansfield asked the defendant how the drugs would make him feel, to which he replied awake and alert.

The defendant described his interactions with a woman with whom he went on to have an affair.

The woman would later make complaints to police that led to six of the charges he was now on trial for, including rape and supplying illicit drugs.

He said at one stage they had been flirting in a vehicle and the woman asked if he wanted to see and touch her breasts, to which he said “yes”.

They stopped at a motel and had sex.

He said the affair made him feel confused because he loved his wife, but also had feelings for the other woman.

It is the defence’s case the police had actively sought more complainants after a woman made a complaint in 2021 about being sexually assaulted by the defendant.

They say they have played a “numbers” game and tried to get as many people as possible to give evidence, and now those women were re-imagining sexual encounters they’d had with the defendant and claiming they were illegal.

It is the Crown’s case the defendant was “addicted to sex” and used his popularity to get what he wanted from women, whether they wanted it or not.

In total, the defendant has pleaded not guilty to 10 charges of indecent assault, four of sexual violation by rape, three of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, two of attempted sexual violation, two of burglary, one of assault with intent to commit sexual violation, one of supplying MDMA, one of supplying methamphetamine and one of wilfully attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Suppression orders prevent some details and the names of others involved in the case from being reported. The trial is before Justice Layne Harvey, and today marks the start of the ninth week.

Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.