Hutt man is on trial in Wellington for rape in which he encouraged his partner’s child to commit suicide

He has admitted one charge of making an intimate visual recording, but has pleaded not guilty to two further charges of the same charge: three of indecent assault, six of having an unlawful sexual relationship, three of rape, two of abuse in a family relationship. , three of strangulation, and one of inciting or advising suicide.

The defendant’s lawyer, Clare Stanley, said the defense is saying the incidents related to the allegations “simply did not happen.”

She said this case was largely a “he said, she said” situation and there were “two very contrasting versions of events.”

“What the complainant says is not true,” she said in her brief opening statement to the jury. “Her credibility, her credibility is what you have to focus on.”

Meanwhile, Crown attorney Nicole Jamieson painted a grim picture of a “short but intense relationship” riddled with sexual violence, control and jealousy issues in her opening statement.

She said that in the two or three months the defendant was with the complainant, he controlled who she saw and spoke to, what she wore and who she was friends with, often becoming jealous and accusing her of infidelity.

Jamieson said the Crown case involved the man being respectful and calm for the first month of the relationship, but things quickly changed.

She said he began performing sexual acts on the complainant in front of his and her children, including an incident where he allegedly put his hand down her pants while he was driving, despite the children being in the backseat.

She also described cases of rape and sexual assault, saying that on one occasion the defendant strangled the woman while raping her.

“(The complainant) remembers hearing (her son) shouting and (the defendant) shouting back, ‘Shut up’.”

In her evidentiary interview with police, which was played in court, the complainant described an alleged incident from her birthday.

She had previously sent the defendant a photo of vibrating underwear, which he then went to buy as a birthday gift, with two of the children handing the gift to her in a brown paper bag, she said.

She said he told her the boys had bought her the gift and joked that he didn’t know why they would buy her a sex toy.

They later took the children out for a birthday dinner at a restaurant, where the defendant allegedly told her to go to the bathroom and put the vibrating device in her underwear, even though she insisted she didn’t want to. She said she complied because she didn’t want him to yell or become aggressive.

She said he turned the device on and it vibrated loudly. She asked him to stop several times, but he continued playing with the device’s functions with the children throughout dinner, including while she tried to talk to a waitress, she said.

When they got home, an argument broke out over a parenting decision, and she said he pushed her and ripped off the necklace she was wearing.

“(My son) came forward and grabbed a knife. He held it out to (the defendant) and he shouted, ‘This is for touching my mother, don’t touch my mother,'” she said, adding that the defendant taunted the boy and said, “Just do it, stab just put me down.”

The complainant convinced her son to drop the knife and he started crying. “He shouted, ‘I hate my life, I wish I was dead, I’m going to kill myself.’”

She said the defendant then came over and told the boy he was a crybaby and that he wasn’t surprised he was being bullied at school.

“If you hate life so much, I can help you commit suicide,” he allegedly said.

“(My son) got even more upset by that comment and said to me, ‘Mom, this is why I don’t want to live, no one wants me here.’ (The defendant) turned around and said, ‘Do you want me to take you to a cliff? I can drop you off there,” the complainant said.

“(He) kept looking at (my son) the whole time and telling (him) that I didn’t want him around.”

She said the accused told the boy he had made a mistake, that the complainant should never have given birth to him and that the family would be better off without him.

She said she eventually managed to convince the defendant to put the other child to bed, and she comforted her son as he cried for 20 minutes.

In the Crown case, the abuse ended when the complainant broke off the relationship with the defendant with the support and encouragement of loved ones.

The trial continues today.

Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter covering crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and worked as a journalist for ten years.