Showrunner Trial: Rape Accuser’s Relationship to Defendant Questioned

Warning: distressing content

A defense lawyer questioned a young woman why she went on to have sex with an entertainment star – which she said was rape.

Ron Mansfield KC is representing the entertainer at his trial in the High Court in Rotorua, where the young woman is giving evidence.

The man is pleading guilty to 25 counts of rape, sexual assault and drug-related crimes related to the young woman and eight other women over the years.

The married man allegedly used his position in the industry to have illicit sex with women.

The woman admitted in evidence today that she was “stupid” in retrospect.

She has a legal name withholding, while the man has a provisional name withholding until the end of the trial.

The young woman told Judge Ryan Harvey and the jury under questioning by crown prosecutor Anna Pollitt on Tuesday that the man asked her to go to his hotel but she thought it was to exercise.

Instead, she said the man asked her to go to his room and they ended up having sex, though she procrastinated and tried to avoid him.

She said she didn’t want it to happen and just kept going because she was afraid of what would happen if she refused.

She said the man was older than she and at one point he became “angry” and “resolute” and said, “You’re looking at me like you want to”.

After some time, the man offered to take the young woman – who was a showbiz hopeful – to another city for an opportunity to further her career.

The young woman said she agreed, thinking it would be safe because she knew another man would be with them. But on leaving, she said she was drunk and the man stuffed white powder into her mouth, took her back to the residence and raped her.

She said she didn’t remember what happened, but flashed a memory of being naked and having sex with him. She said she woke up with sore private parts and “blood all over the sheets”.

On Wednesday, Mansfield asked the young woman why she later had a text conversation with the man, even though she now claims he raped her.

The young woman said she wanted to forget about the whole thing and tried to move on.

She admitted to Mansfield that after another drunken episode she tried to “blackmail” the man into doing something for her through some of his contacts – an incident she apologized to the man days later.

Her threats included texting him saying “please, otherwise,” which she admitted was a threat to tell people he forced her because she said the man knew what he had done to her before was wrong.

But Mansfield said telling his wife they had been having sex was more of a threat.

“Whether you’re covering it up or not, honestly, you don’t threaten someone you say you’re afraid of,” Mansfield said.

The woman disagreed, saying they hadn’t had sex.

Mansfield asked the young woman why she would travel with the man to another city to look for job opportunities without a contract.

He suggested to the young woman that this was an opportunity for her to spend an evening with the man without his wife present.

In response, she said, “No”.

Mansfield asked her why, the day before she got a professional opportunity, she would have such a big night out drinking in another city with a man she said she had earlier been terrified of in a hotel room.

“Your subject of evidence…it’s all about your work, so why are you pumping it?”

The young woman said that in such a situation, everyone drinks.

She said that looking back now, she realizes her actions were not a good idea.

“I’m so stupid.”

A woman says sex with a man is not consensual because she has no control over it.

“The main point is that I don’t want to have sex with him and I’m out of control.”

The trial is in its third week and is expected to last at least six weeks. This was in front of Judge Harvey and a jury of nine women and three men.