Woman tells court of alleged pack rape 16 years ago

Sixteen years after an alleged pack rape at Mount Maunganui, a woman was today relived the incident before the High Court at Wellington.

The woman, who alleges she was raped by five men in January 1989 when she was 20, broke down as she retold how she was lured to an empty building on the false pretence of a lunch date with a man she liked.

Four men, now aged between 40 and 53, are on trial after the woman lodged the complaint with police in March this year.

A jury of four men and eight women yesterday heard how the woman felt too intimidated by the men to report the incident at the time.

The four men each face charges of rape and abduction. Two are also charged with unlawful sexual violation and one is also charged with a second count of rape and unlawful sexual violation.

The men have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The fifth man has never been identified or charged.

Court orders prevent the identification of the accused, and their past and present occupations.

Taking the stand for the second day, the woman -- now 37 and married with three children -- described her shock when taken by an associate of the man she liked not to a cafe for lunch, but to an empty building.

Inside a mattress had been placed on the floor and the man she liked was waiting with three others. Another man was on a balcony outside.

Asked by Crown prosecutor Brent Stanaway what was going through her mind, the woman replied: "I'm a goner. At that stage I really started to panic and said, 'What's going on'."

The woman was told to lie on a mattress and her arms were restrained above her head.

"I was petrified, I knew at this stage they were going to rape me," she told the court.

The woman began to cry as she described being raped by the men one after another.

Asked if she tried to fight back, the woman replied: "I had my arms above my head, my legs were spread, there was nothing I could do. They were an unknown entity. I didn't know they weren't going to bash me and finish me off, or take me away somewhere. I had no idea."

Asked if it was consensual group sex, the woman replied: "It's absolute rubbish, I did not agree to have sexual intercourse ... with anyone in that room."

The trial, before Justice Ronald Young, is expected to take up to three weeks.

- NZPA