Bondage claims in under-age sex trial
A Christchurch man says two girls have “conspired” against him with their tales of bondage and under-age sex, in a jury trial that began at the Christchurch District Court today.
Twenty-nine-year-old Ian Edward Hitchcock denies 16 charges of supplying cannabis, rape, and unlawful sexual connection with the young girls. He also denies one charge of perverting the course of justice by setting up Facebook pages to intimidate the girls after they had been to the police.
His defence counsel, James Rapley, told the jury that Hitchcock did not have sex with either of the complainants, who were both under 16 when the offending allegedly occurred, and he did not sell or supply cannabis to anyone.
He said the girls were very troubled young teenagers, both involved in a lifestyle of trouble at home and at school, and both consumed alcohol and drugs.
He said the girls had got their heads together and conspired to get Hitchcock in trouble, as retribution for an incident where someone they knew was convicted of a home invasion at Hitchcock’s house.
The police found bondage items in his bedroom, which was something he was into, but it was not illegal to have that material, Mr Rapley said.
Crown prosecutor Mark Zarifeh said Hitchcock sexually offended against the two girls, then aged 13 and 14.
They allege he bound and blindfolded them at different times, and then raped them. There are other sexual offending charges against him by both girls.
Mr Zarifeh said that after the girls went to the police, the Crown alleges Hitchcock opened Facebook pages, one titled “These two girls are stupid little sluts”, and another titled they were lying little sluts. They had a photo of the girls with rifle cross-hair sights over their faces, and he was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice by intimidating them.
The trial in front of Judge David Saunders is expected to continue all week.
Category: Focus
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