Rotorua’s leading entertainment figure on trial: Public prosecution, defense outline case

A lawyer for a New Zealand entertainment figure accused of raping and coercing women into drugging has described the trial as a “MeToo feast”.

The defendant, who cannot be named due to a restraining order, is on trial in the Rotorua High Court after denying 25 charges relating to the nine complainants.

Crown prosecutor Anna Pollitt today outlined her case to a jury of nine women and three men, and briefed them on what they will hear over the next six weeks.

She described several instances of men coercing women, dipping their fingers in white powder and sticking them in their mouths, causing one to lose consciousness and the others to lose control of their actions.

The man’s lawyer, Ron Mansfield KC, opened the jury briefly, saying sex and drugs were part of the man’s lifestyle, but so were those around him.

“He’s doing it and everyone else is involved in it…you need to understand it’s not just this man involved in sex and drugs and [and other choices]. During this trial, you will hear almost all of the witnesses. “

Mansfield said the man was “popular” and didn’t need to turn to alcoholic and drugged women to have sex with them.

He said the complainant had been “pushed” since the first woman came forward with the allegations.

“You’re going to start hearing the voices of #MeToos and the voices of other people who have been forced to go to the police, and those people will support the case to bring this guy down.”

“So we had a #MeToo fest. We had people reshaping the nights they spent with him to support the case. Many women had actual relationships with him.”

While officials will call 63 witnesses, the man will also give evidence, as will many other advocates, Mansfield said.

“They’re just there to make sure you have the right understanding of what happened. Guys, these allegations have nothing to do with what happened.”

Many people “worshiped” the man, but with success came haters, Mansfield said.

“He bent a few noses. Some of them would have loved to have seen the man go down.”

Pollitt’s opening remarks outlined what happened to a young woman who was the first to call the police.

Pollitt said the woman was living in the same house as the man and other out-of-towners when he went into her room and woke her up. He hugged her and thanked her for being a sober driver.

He held her face, kissed her hard, and asked her to kiss him back. She wanted to push him away, but he was pressed against the wall.

He unbuttoned her bra. She told him “please stop”, but he told her “shh”.

He walked out of the room, leaving her distressed and in tears. Thirty seconds later, he returned with a can of wine.

Pollitt said he pushed her against a wall and sexually assaulted her.

The woman told him to stop several times.

Pollitt summarized evidence from eight other women.

A teen told a jury the man pushed her into a bedroom when she refused to kiss him or hold his hand.

Pollett said a third complainant would say the man told her he had connections in Auckland and could help her career, so she agreed to go with him to meet them in Auckland.

At dinner, the young woman was drinking when the man dipped his finger in an unknown white powder and put it in her mouth.

Pollitt said the woman would say the powder intensified the alcohol, which she had no control over and could not make a decision about.

He took the woman back to her room and had sex with her despite knowing she didn’t consent.

Paulette said another teen would describe how he walked into her bedroom in the middle of the night and put his hand on her lap.

Another woman would talk about how he gave her the white powder, but when she refused, he walked up behind her and put his finger in her mouth.

Pollitt said the man took the woman into a bedroom and put a belt under the door to keep anyone out. She rejected his overtures and the man left angrily.

Another complainant would speak of how she initially rejected the man’s sexual advances in the middle of the night, but later had an affair with him.

One night, at a concert, the man forced an ecstasy, or ecstasy, called a Pink Porsche, into her mouth.

The accused took the woman home.

Pollitt said the woman had no control over her body and the man had sex with her.

The affair ends, but the man gets jealous later.

He went to the woman’s house and talked inside. The pair shared methamphetamine and he tried to have sex with her, but the woman refused.

Pollitt said he forced himself to rape the woman and raped her, and when he was done, he said, “This is what a slut deserves.”

Another woman would talk about being in a hotel room with the man and being given a drink that she later believed was spiked.

She remembers waking up to being sexually assaulted and raped by a man.

Another plaintiff will tell the jury how the man entered her home twice in one night.

When she first found him at her house, he said he needed to use the bathroom.

He then pushed her into a corner and sexually assaulted her, Pollitt said. She pushed him away, and he got angry before leaving.

The woman goes to bed, but wakes up hours later to find him lying on top of her.

She managed to send a text message to her sister saying the man was going to rape her. When the woman’s sister called, the man was furious, threatened to kill them, put on his clothes and left.

The first woman to lodge a complaint with police was called as the first official witness this afternoon.

In a video of her police questioning that she played to the jury, she spoke of how she never thought something like this could happen to her.

She said she felt powerless. “He was an evil, disgusting man.”

The man was charged with 10 counts of indecent assault, 4 counts of sexual assault with rape, 3 counts of sexual assault with unlawful sexual relations, 2 counts of attempted sexual assault, 2 counts of burglary, 1 count of assault with intent to commit sexual assault, 1 count of providing MDMA, one delivering methamphetamine, and one deliberate attempt to obstruct justice.

Trial continues.