Rape complainant left evidence in station 'in fear of her life'

A woman allegedly raped in a Northland police station while handcuffed two decades ago said yesterday that she left evidence behind because she feared for her life.

She placed some hair she pulled out from her head on a desk in the room where the alleged offences took place.

She also marked the desk with her fingerprints. "I saw this as a very dangerous place to be and I wanted to leave some evidence there," she said.

"I thought he had to kill me. I perceived myself being in a very scary situation."

The woman was giving evidence on the opening day of the trial of a former police constable who faces eight charges, including four of sexual violation by rape. The accused, who has name suppression, does not dispute that sex took place, but says it was consensual.

The woman told the Auckland District Court that she had gone to a hotel for dinner to discuss a business matter on a Saturday night in March 1988.

Her partner worked at the hotel and she stayed on after dinner, when she was introduced to the accused.

She said the man was dressed in plain clothes and smelt of alcohol.

In the early hours of Sunday, she was asked if she could take the accused home in her car, as she was heading in his direction.

The woman agreed but did so reluctantly, adding that the man was now "very drunk". As they reached the town where he lived, he asked her to stop by the police station, saying he needed to pick up some running gear he would need the following day.

At the station, he said there was a problem with her car lights. When she got out to check, "I felt a bang on my right wrist and it was handcuffs".

"I felt claustrophobic, I felt I couldn't move, I felt scared," she said.

"I begged him to let me go home."

The woman said the man suggested sex, and when she declined, he told her he would take the handcuffs off, but the key was in the station. She went inside with him and it was then the alleged offences took place.

She said she made it clear that she wanted him to stop. She told him afterwards: "You raped me."

"He said, 'No, you enjoyed it.' I said again, 'No, you raped me'."

She said he told her not to tell anyone what happened or "I will do you".

Before the woman took the witness box, defence counsel Gary Gotlieb told the jury that the sex was not only consensual, but was "instigated and promoted" by the woman.

Mr Gotlieb said the accused was 28 at the time, 16 years younger than the complainant, who was a mature woman.

He questioned why a formal complaint to police was not made until three months later and said a decision not to lay charges at the time had the support of the then Police Minister.

- NZPA