Woman unhappy after 'lunch date', court hears

A woman who claims she was gang-raped at Mt Maunganui 16 years ago changed from being outgoing to withdrawn and unhappy after the alleged attack, a former colleague told the High Court at Wellington yesterday.

The two women worked for a Hamilton-based company but were based at Mt Maunganui for a six-week period over the summer of 1989.

The complainant, then aged 20, says she was gang-raped by five men in January 1989 after being lured into an empty building on the promise of a date with a man she liked.

Four of those men are now on trial for rape and abduction after the woman - now 37 and living in Australia - laid a complaint with police in April last year. The fifth man has never been identified.

The identities and occupations of the accused men are suppressed by the court. They admit having group sex with the woman but say it was consensual and deny she was restrained.

The former colleague told the court the two women met the men through their work at Mt Maunganui.

Two of the men had regularly visited the women's workplace.

There had been flirting between one of the men - whom she described as large, muscular and overbearing - and the rape complainant.

"I felt there were sparks or a connection between the two of them."

The former colleague said the woman left work one day around midday to have lunch with the man.

However, when she returned, her behaviour had changed. She was no longer bubbly and friendly. "She was not her usual self, she seemed withdrawn, she didn't seem happy."

Shortly after, she took off unexpectedly, not returning for several days.

Cross-examined by defence lawyer Paul Mabey, QC, the former colleague admitted that when she was first interviewed she could not remember who the woman had wanted to hide from but had later remembered.

- NZPA