KEY POINTS:
A 17-year-old youth has told of trying to get help late at night at a retirement home while he could hear his girlfriend screaming that she was being raped nearby.
"I was knocking on doors and windows, but no one would let me in so I rang the bell," the youth said at a Christchurch District Court depositions hearing today.
He returned to his 16-year-old girlfriend after a few minutes to find her attacker had gone.
The youth - who cannot be named because of his relationship with the alleged rape victim - was the only witness to give evidence in person today at the depositions session for Gary Shane Ian Nicholas, a 28-year-old Aranui man charged with the sex attack.
The crown will call evidence from 15 witnesses in the trial, but almost all the evidence today was handed to Judge John Bisphan in written form.
The youth said he and the girl were walking home from a party about 1.50am on June 1 when they were approached by a tall man. The man challenged him to fight, but he refused.
The man approached them again about three minutes later when they were underneath the bridge on the corner of Anzac Drive and New Brighton Road. Again, the man challenged him to fight and he again refused.
The man then allegedly said to the youth's girlfriend: "Let me rape you or I'm going to kill you", the youth told the court.
He grabbed the girl by the elbows and pushed her to the ground, on her back. The youth ran for help, and said his last view of the man was of him on his hands and knees, kneeling over the girl.
The youth ran to the nearby Kate Sheppard Retirement Home and tried to get help but could not get anyone to let him in, while he could hear the girl screaming: "I'm getting raped. Help me."
Cross-examined by defence counsel Allister Davis, the youth said he had made a full statement to the police less than two hours after the alleged attack.
He acknowledged that he said in that statement that his girlfriend had told him the man had tried to rape her but had not succeeded.
When the evidence was all in, Mr Davis conceded there was a case to answer.
Judge Bisphan remanded Nicholas to appear at a pre-trial conference in the High Court on September 26. He was remanded in custody, after bail was refused in the District Court and in an appeal to the High Court on July 3.
He faces charges of sexually violating the girl, threatening to kill her, and assaulting her with intent to cause sexual violation.
- NZPA
