The defendant, along with friends B and S, are all charged with three counts of rape. Each man faces one count for allegedly raping the woman himself and two counts for aiding or encouraging his friends to take part. <\/p>\n
O and B, linked to the woman through DNA testing, have both admitted having sex with her<\/a> but insist it was consensual. S told police he was asleep<\/a> through the whole incident and didn\u2019t have sex with her at all. <\/p>\n The then-19-year-old complainant, who said she emerged from a blackout to find one of the men having sex with her, didn\u2019t give consent and was too intoxicated to give it anyhow, prosecutors have said. The woman\u2019s own memory from that night, however, was too disjointed to give a precise account<\/a> of what happened. <\/p>\n \u2018She touched my body\u2019<\/p>\n O told jurors he had worked out with F on the afternoon of New Year\u2019s Eve 2024 before they drove into the city in O\u2019s car to meet up with friends and drink in an Auckland Central carpark. <\/p>\n It was his first time drinking, O said, mirroring claims made by his two co-defendants. <\/p>\n The trio and two other friends watched the fireworks over the SkyTower before driving about 500m to Family Bar, he said. It was inside the popular Karangahape Rd nightclub, packed with New Year\u2019s revellers, that O said the complainant made her first move on him as he stood near the bar. <\/p>\n \u201cShe came to me,\u201d he said. \u201cWe talked for some time and then she started dancing with me. She touched my body. She sang, and these types of things.\u201d<\/p>\n He estimated the two interacted for five to seven minutes before the music paused between songs and he turned his attention to his friends, prompting her to walk away. <\/p>\n About 10 minutes later, he estimated, he then saw the woman kissing his friend B. A couple of minutes after that, as the woman and B were still kissing, he took a two-second video of them. It was because \u201cthat was such an interesting scene for me\u201d, he said, clarifying later that it was so he could tease his friend about it later. <\/p>\n \u2018She said pull over\u2019<\/p>\n He next talked to B on the phone, he said, after B and the woman were asked to leave the bar because they were groping each other. <\/p>\n \u201cPlease give me the car key because I want to drop off the girl,\u201d O recalled his friend telling him. <\/p>\n But when O went to hand over the key, he said, B instead told him to chauffer the vehicle because that\u2019s what the woman wanted. His intention was to drop her off at her place, he said, but they got detoured to Avondale after a misunderstanding in which he started driving to Hobsonville instead of Auckland Central\u2019s Hobson Lodge.<\/p>\n As O drove, he said, the woman and B were kissing in the van\u2019s middle row of seats with the woman straddling B\u2019s lap. They appeared to get spooked, he said, when an ambulance passed them with its sirens on. <\/p>\n \u201c[B] told me that she said pull over and park somewhere,\u201d O testified, explaining that he at first pulled to the side of the road in Avondale before moving the car to a quiet carpark because the woman didn\u2019t like the headlights of passing trucks. <\/p>\n B and the woman appeared to have been engaging in sexual activity but they suddenly stopped after O parked the car, he said, adding that he didn\u2019t know why. She seemed normal and happy, he said, while B seemed embarassed and distracted. <\/p>\n \u2018You sure?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then she started talking to me,\u201d O said. \u201cShe asked me to have sex. And after that, for a few seconds I stopped and I said, \u2018You sure?\u2019 And she said yes because we were together initially in the bar. And I went to the back seat.\u201d<\/p>\n The woman, he said, \u201cmade sounds which shows kind of enjoyment\u201d and was touching him. B, meanwhile, had moved to the front driver\u2019s seat and O said he \u201chad no idea\u201d co-defendant S was even in the car because he had got in the back seat without telling anyone and had fallen asleep before they left the bar. <\/p>\n O then got back in the driver\u2019s seat and continued to Hobsonville before realising with some annoyance that they had gone to the wrong place, he said. <\/p>\n When they finally got the woman to her hostel, he said, B wanted to walk her to the door but O refused because he was parked illegally on the side of the road. As the woman got out of the van, he said, her demeanour was normal. <\/p>\n \u201cFirst she said, \u2018I\u2019m sorry for ruining your night,\u2019 then she thanked me,\u201d he recalled to jurors. <\/p>\n \u2018Watching for a cue\u2019<\/p>\n Prosecutors Culliney and Pip McNabb queued up CCTV footage, often repeating it in slow motion and zoomed in, as they reviewed the defendant\u2019s version of events with him. <\/p>\n As the woman could be seen stumbling outside the nightclub \u2013 at one point pushing B away then temporarily walking away from him after they had kissed \u2013 co-defendants O and S were spotted standing across the street. O had earlier told jurors they were still inside. <\/p>\n \u201cYou were watching for a cue from [B], weren\u2019t you?\u201d Culliney asked. \u201cYou must have seen how drunk she was.\u201d<\/p>\n O said he didn\u2019t realise his friend and the woman were across the street, and he couldn\u2019t gauge drunkeness because of his own inexperience with alcohol. <\/p>\n \u201cOn that call, was [B] saying something like, \u2018Hurry up\u2019?\u201d Culliney asked. \u201cWas he indicating there was an urgency: \u2018We need to take her now\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n No, the defendant responded to each question. <\/p>\n The prosecutor pointed out that around that same time, the woman sent a message to her friends that was believed to be a misspelling of the German word for \u201chelp\u201d. <\/p>\n At 2.44am, as O said he was called upon to bring B the car keys, it looked on CCTV like B was instead handing keys to O. O then ran to retrieve the van, while S \u2013 who at that time was already supposed to have fallen asleep in the van, according to his testimony \u2013 was seen running directly behind O. <\/p>\n The rush, Culliney suggested, was because B had given them a signal that the woman was losing interest so they needed to act fast to take her away. <\/p>\n \u2018Waiting to have a turn\u2019<\/p>\n The prosecutors then switched focus to the roughly 10 minutes of CCTV footage from the Avondale carpark, pausing it every few seconds to ask O to explain what was going on. <\/p>\n Almost immediately after pulling into the carpark, O could be seen on camera turning around towards the middle seat \u2013 where B, prosecutors alleged, was still in the act of raping the woman. <\/p>\n O acknowledged B was naked and sitting next to the woman, but he said the two weren\u2019t having sex. That\u2019s when she asked O to have sex with her, he said. He could be seen getting out of the driver\u2019s seat and walking around to the side of the van, taking his shirt off. <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re waiting outside to have a turn, aren\u2019t you?\u201d Culliney asked. <\/p>\n \u201cI was waiting for [B] to get out of the van because he was looking for something there in the back of the van,\u201d O responded. <\/p>\n Both agreed that B could then be seen climbing into the driver\u2019s seat of the van as O entered the side door. <\/p>\n \u201cSo within seconds of [B] moving to the front you\u2019re on top of [the complainant]?\u201d Culliney asked, to which the defendant agreed. <\/p>\n \u201cShe was passed out, and what you\u2019ve done is you\u2019ve tagged in for your turn, haven\u2019t you?\u201d the prosecutor asked, pointing out that O spent just one-and-a-half minutes in the centre of the van with the woman. \u201cI suggest that you raped her in that minute and a half.\u201d <\/p>\n O denied the assertion. <\/p>\n \u2018Must have been furious\u2019<\/p>\n Culliney continued the video, showing a third person appearing in the centre row with the woman as O and B sat in the front seats. The prosecutor repeated to O his earlier assertion that he had no inkling that S was also in the van.<\/p>\n The prosecution paused the video multiple other times after flashes of light were seen from the interior of the vehicle. At one point, Culliney said, it looked like O was taking a selfie. He denied taking any photos, suggesting that his phone might have been flashing due to incoming messages or he was watching a video.<\/p>\n At 3.43am, after they had left the carpark, the complainant had texted her fellow backpaker friends: \u201cCan someone please help me?\u201d and \u201cHelp.\u201d O insisted her mood seemed normal. He suggested she sent the messages because she wanted help remembering the name of her hostel. <\/p>\n At one point during the cross-examination, O said he wanted to ask a question of the prosecutor. That\u2019s not how it works, Culliney explained, but he asked anyway.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I wanted to do this, why I went to a CCTV area?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou didn\u2019t know there was a CCTV camera!\u201d the prosecutor shot back with derision.<\/p>\n O responded: \u201cEveryone knows that when you pass some area and there are security lights, they turn on, there should be a camera. I knew that every single part of that area had a camera.\u201d<\/p>\n Culliney suggested the defendant didn\u2019t know and \u201cmust have been furious\u201d with himself when he later realised what he had done. Quite the contrary, he responded, arguing that all sorts of things could have been made up about him and his co-defendants had it not been recorded. <\/p>\n O\u2019s testimony was the only evidence called by the defence. Although co-defendants B and S didn\u2019t testify, jurors watched lengthy police interviews with both of them that were recorded last January, days after the alleged incident. <\/p>\n It is expected jurors will hear more of the defence perspective when closing addresses, which started today, conclude on Monday. <\/p>\nFamily Bar on Auckland Central’s Karangahape Rd. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n
Family Bar on Karangahape Rd. Photo \/ File<\/p>\n
Crown prosecutor Fiona Culliney. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n