Witness moved to tears during trial of two soldiers

ACCUSED: Michael Williams Galvin (left) and Keith Issac Cook have pleaded not guilty to sexually violating and indecently assaulting a woman in a Unimog.PHOTO/STUART MUNRO 071014WCSMTRIAL3

The sister of a woman who says she was sexually violated by two soldiers in the cab of a Unimog was moved to tears in court today.

The trial began on Monday for Michael Williams Galvin and Keith Issac Cook, who each pleaded not guilty to three charges of sexual violation and three of indecent assault after the alleged offending at the Waiouru Army base on October 5, 2012.

The complainant's sister was on the verge of tears in the dock as she described her sister's showing up on her doorstep "hysterical".

She heard a knock on her door just after 4am, she said.

"She was on the front doorstep for about a minute before she finally said to me 'I think I've been raped'," the sister said in her police statement.

"She was hysterically crying, it was terrible," she said in court.

"She was just terrified, bawling her eyes out."

Cook's defence lawyer Roger Crowley pointed out an inaccuracy in the sister's police statement compared to what she said in court. In court, the sister said the complainant told her she wasn't sure if she could call it rape, as she was unsure what sexual activity could be called rape.

The sister told Mr Crowley the complainant said that as she stood on the doorstep and throughout the explanation over the next 20 minutes.

Her police statement, however, says the complainant only said it later in the conversation.

The sister cried as she was questioned and while leaving the dock.