Man denies raping woman in Auckland motel, woman says 'no means no'

In the High Court at Auckland, the man faces, and denies, one charge of sexual violation by rape. Photo / File

Warning: Distressing content

A man has denied raping a woman in an Auckland motel room, which prosecutors say happened after she had earlier cried about wanting to go home.

The man - who has name suppression - is on trial before Justice Geoffrey Venning in the High Court at Auckland.

The defendant faces, and denies, one charge of sexual violation by rape.

In opening the case, Crown prosecutor Claire Paterson said the defendant and the complainant had met up for a date, first drinking at bars in Auckland's viaduct in April 2018.

Paterson said the accused had talked about the future and marriage, topics the woman found "odd" given they had just met.

The pair ended up at a motel and he became aggressive when she rebuffed his sexual advances and later the same night raped her, the prosecutor said.

"She froze. She tried to block out what was happening."

She did not know how to get home, Paterson said, so she stayed in the room until the morning when he drove her to a supermarket carpark.

The prosecutor said the complainant did not want him to know exactly where she lived.

Defence lawyer Tiffany Cooper said it was consensual sexual activity or at least the defendant had reasonable grounds to believe it was.

She said the allegation was a fabrication.

Justice Geoffrey Venning, pictured last year, is presiding over the judge alone trial. Photo / File

'I didn't even want to go to the motel'

Today, the complainant gave evidence in the High Court trial recalling their Auckland date.

"He was saying how lucky he was to be on this date with me," she said.

He got quite serious, she said, and told her he could see her in a white dress.

"It was a very strange comment to make."

While out drinking the pair ended up kissing, the court heard.

After leaving the last bar in Mt Eden together in his car, he pulled up at a motel which he explained by saying all the bars would be closed, the court heard.

"I just believed him," the complainant said.

She said he told her to come inside and have a drink, and she obliged, assuming once inside she would to able to sort out how to get home.

"I couldn't just stay in the car," she said.

"I didn't know where I was."

She told the court inside the motel room she rebuffed his sexual advances, saying she did not want to do anything that night.

"He said 'what was my problem?'"

He said he had treated me "like a princess" paying for everything and told her she was "being ungrateful", she said.

As he got angrier he shouted, she said.

"I have never been shouted at like that before ever, by anyone," she said.

"I was really scared and upset."

The woman told the court she repeated that she wanted to go home.

She realised she had accidentally misplaced her handbag at the last bar they had visited, meaning she did not have her house keys or her wallet to pay for a taxi.

She tried to make some calls on her phone, which was unreliable due to water damage, the court heard.

He said he was too drunk to drive anywhere else that night, she said.

"It didn't make any sense because he had been drinking and driving the whole night."

But when she wanted to leave, all of a sudden, he could not drive, she said.

She told the court he said: "I guess you just have to stay here then."

"Like he was doing me a favour."

The woman said there was only one bed in the room so she lay as far away from him as possible, still fully clothed.

"I was still really upset about not being able to get home."

He then started having sex with her, the court heard.

Paterson asked if the woman had responded in any way that could have been described as positive.

The woman said no, she was still crying.

"No I didn't want to ... I didn't even want to go to the motel."

During cross-examination Cooper said if the woman had not been enjoying her time at the bars there had been "ample opportunity to bail".

Defence lawyer Tiffany Cooper pictured in the High Court at Auckland today. Photo / Sam Hurley

"I have never bailed on a date before," the woman replied.

"I don't know how to just leave."

Cooper suggested after a drink she could have politely said she needed to be somewhere.

The defence lawyer said if there had been an argument about sex at the motel it would have been an "enormous sign" to leave.

But the woman told the court she did to try to leave.

Cooper said the woman claimed she had said no earlier in the night but questioned whether she had ever said that again when the defendant began kissing her again.

"No means no," the woman replied.

"I shouldn't have to say no over and over again."

The trial resumes tomorrow.