Men laughed and joked during rape, girl says
A 17-year-old girl has told a jury that a group of men joked and laughed while she was being repeatedly raped in the sand dunes at Woodend beach.
She said of the night in May 2014, when she was aged 16: “I’m surrounded by black shadows. I can’t move. I’m trapped. I tried screaming out. I was trying to get away, but I couldn’t.”
The girl continued giving her evidence today, on the second day of the two week trial in the High Court at Christchurch before Justice David Gendall and a jury.
Isaac Jason Mould, 21, from Woodend, Brook Sebastian Norris, a 22-year-old landscape gardener from Brooklands, Troy Matua James McIver, 21, a rigger from Rangiora, Ky Robert Reginald Reid, a 21-year-old logging contractor from Woodend, and Stuart Mitchell Lewis, 21, deny three charges of rape and one charge of unlawful sexual connection.
The Crown alleges that the woman was raped by Mould, McIver, and Norris, and Lewis sexually violated her by oral sex.
All the men allegedly present have been jointly charged on the basis that they either committed the crimes or actively helped or encouraged someone else to commit the crime, or that they formed a common intention to sexually assault the girl, Crown prosecutor Deidre Orchard explained to the jury as the trial began.
Reid has been charged with rape and sexual violation even though the Crown does not say he committed these offences himself.
The girl gave evidence of Reid complaining that he could not get an erection, but she said he did nothing to stop what was happening.
“The others were joking and laughing with each other. I could not do anything. I think one was complaining that he hadn’t had his turn yet,” she said.
She said one of the men put his penis into the sand before raping her. She believed it was McIver, who the Crown alleges was raping the girl when another man realised what was happening and pulled him away to end the incident.
“I think it was the end, and it was the last time I screamed,” she said.
The rape was “just so painful”, she said, and it took three days to get rid of all the sand even though she had a three-hour shower on the night. When the man had intervened and she had tried to clean herself up, she was shaking and crying “and there was sand everywhere”.
The girl had bruises after the incident, but did not complain to the police until about four months later.
The trial is continuing.
Category: Focus
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