Leading entertainment figure trial: Wife was ‘okay’ with him having casual sex with others

A leading figure in the New Zealand entertainment industry is on trial in the High Court at Rotorua. Photo / Andrew Warner

The wife of a leading entertainment figure has told a High Court jury she knew her husband was having casual sex with other women but she was okay with it as long as he did not form relationships with them.

The woman’s husband, who has interim name suppression, is on trial in Rotorua facing 25 rape, sexual assault and drug-related charges relating to nine complainants.

The Crown alleges the man, over several years, raped or sexually assaulted the women - on occasions by forcing some of them to take illicit drugs leaving them unable to control their bodies.

The man’s wife, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the jury today she and her husband had a healthy sexual relationship but she knew her husband was not faithful because of “talk” among their associates.

“It was an unspoken between us. I knew what was going on but as long as it didn’t affect me personally in our home, I was okay with it.”

When asked under cross-examination by the man’s lawyer, Ron Mansfield KC, if she had formed some relationships with the women also, she said yes.

Mansfield asked the woman if she and her husband had engaged in a threesome before and she said they had once in earlier years.

She said her husband admitted at one point, after being confronted, he had been having an affair with another woman for about two years.

When asked under re-examination by Crown Solicitor Anna Pollett to expand on how she knew about her husband’s casual sexual relationships, the man’s wife said it was spoken of in general by their associates who would talk.

When asked if her husband had admitted any other affairs, aside from casual sex, the wife said there was a second woman he told her about with whom he had had a relationship while they were married.

She said she was not okay with any of those relationships.

Earlier in her evidence, she was questioned about an occasion when she went away for a few days with her husband and others and stayed at a house out of town.

She said a woman staying at the house left after the first night, explaining to her in a text that something had happened overnight and she did not feel comfortable staying.

The wife said she confronted her husband and he admitted he kissed the woman.

The wife said she “completely lost it”. Later, her husband told her the woman had kissed him back but when he tried to kiss her again she did not seem keen and asked him to leave the room.

The man’s wife said she told her husband it was “disrespectful and disgusting”. He apologised to his wife for what he did.

The jury had previously heard evidence from the woman the man kissed, who said the man went into her bedroom, kissed her forcefully, held her against a wall and sexually assaulted her despite her resisting several times.

It is the defence’s case that sex and drugs, among other things, were part of the lifestyle the man was leading but it was also the lifestyle of those around him.

Mansfield has told the jury his client was “popular” and did not need to resort to plying women with alcohol and drugs to have sex with them.

He said the complainants had been “pushed” since the first woman made allegations and it started what he described as a “MeToo Fest”.

The trial, set down for six weeks, is before Justice Layne Harvey and a jury of nine women and three men. The man’s interim name suppression remains until the end of the trial.