Mattress readied for sex, says witness

One of four men accused of pack-raping a woman at Mt Maunganui 16 years ago excitedly prepared for a sexual encounter the morning of the alleged attack, the High Court at Wellington was told yesterday.

The man had taken an old mattress to an empty building, said a friend, whose name is suppressed.

The man saw his friend later in the day and told him he had had group sex and an object had been used as a sexual implement, the friend told the court.

Four men are on trial after a woman complained in April 2004 that she was gang-raped by five men in January 1989. The fifth man has never been identified.

The identity of the four men and their occupations are suppressed.

The woman, then 20, alleges that she was lured to an empty building on a promise of a lunch date with a man she liked.

She claims she was restrained, raped, and brutally violated with an object. Details of that object are suppressed.

The men admit having group sex with the woman but say it was consensual.

Defence lawyer Tony Balme said two other witnesses would give evidence that they were also told by the man about group sex in the empty building and that an object had been used as a sex aid.

The man's friend - who is also a friend of one of the other accused men - said despite difficulty recollecting events 16 years ago he remembered a mattress being taken to the building the day of the alleged attack.

"I've given this case a lot of thought. I've gone over it again and again," he said.

"I've got two friends involved so it's serious for me. I'm saying what I remembered."

A former colleague of the alleged victim earlier told the court the woman had developed an attraction for one of the accused men after meeting him at her work. Another of the accused men agreed to set up the lunch date. The trial, before Justice Ronald Young and a jury of four men and eight women, will enter its second week on Monday.

- NZPA