The Star: February 16, 2023
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> Thursday <strong>February</strong> <strong>16</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
14<br />
COURT<br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
Army sex assault case: Victim accused<br />
• By Emily Moorhouse<br />
A WOMAN who says she was<br />
sexually violated by a New<br />
Zealand Army officer in a hotel<br />
room has been accused by<br />
the defence of making up the<br />
allegations as a distraction from<br />
her own “bad behaviour”.<br />
During cross-examination,<br />
defence lawyer Elizabeth Bulger<br />
accused the woman of making<br />
up a “charade” to make the officer’s<br />
life difficult – something<br />
she denied.<br />
<strong>The</strong> officer, who has interim<br />
name suppression, appeared<br />
for court martial for a trial that<br />
began on Monday at Burnham<br />
Military Camp.<br />
<strong>The</strong> officer faces one charge<br />
of sexual violation and three<br />
charges of assault after allegedly<br />
slapping the female colleague<br />
across the face twice, pouring<br />
a drink over her, and sexually<br />
violating her in 2017 in a hotel<br />
room.<br />
He admitted to pouring a can<br />
of Red Bull over the woman before<br />
slapping her across the face<br />
in June 2017. He denied the second<br />
charge of slapping her in the<br />
face and sexually violating her in<br />
a hotel room a month later.<br />
<strong>The</strong> officer is charged under<br />
the Armed Forces Discipline Act<br />
1971 and Crimes Act 1961 and<br />
appeared before Judge Kevin<br />
Riordan and a panel of military<br />
members.<br />
On Monday, military prosecutor<br />
John Whitcombe said the<br />
pair, both in their 20s, arranged<br />
to meet at a hotel room overseas<br />
for a sexual encounter for the officer<br />
to “get some anger out”.<br />
But what was supposed to be<br />
consensual, allegedly turned<br />
violent and forceful, leaving the<br />
woman crying and vomiting.<br />
However, Bulger suggested on<br />
Tuesday the entire sexual encounter<br />
was consensual and the<br />
complainant gave no indication<br />
that she wanted to stop.<br />
Bulger suggested the woman<br />
lied about the events in the hotel<br />
room to create a distraction from<br />
her own “bad behaviour”, claiming<br />
she was being investigated<br />
for her conduct and faced being<br />
removed from her army duties<br />
for a separate matter.<br />
<strong>The</strong> woman rejected<br />
this, denying there was an<br />
investigation or what happened<br />
during the sexual encounter in<br />
the hotel room was consensual.<br />
Bulger referred to messages<br />
between the pair prior to the<br />
sexual encounter, which showed<br />
the officer saying it wasn’t his<br />
intention to leave her “bleeding<br />
and in pain” and that if she<br />
needed him to stop then he<br />
would.<br />
Bulger put it to the woman<br />
ALLEGATIONS:<br />
<strong>The</strong> court<br />
martial is<br />
being held<br />
at Burnham<br />
Military Camp.<br />
PHOTO:<br />
GEORGE<br />
HEARD/NZ<br />
HERALD<br />
the pair had previously engaged<br />
in consensual “rough sex” and<br />
things like slapping and choking<br />
were normal.<br />
She agreed but said the sex was<br />
never as forceful as it was during<br />
this particular encounter, and<br />
she had never cried from sex as<br />
she did on this occasion.<br />
Bulger alleged the officer didn’t<br />
slap her across the face when he<br />
first entered the hotel room like<br />
she claimed, but only slapped<br />
her during sex which was<br />
consensual. <strong>The</strong> woman denied<br />
this.<br />
Bulger went on to say the<br />
woman and officer had sex a<br />
second time that night which<br />
was less rough and the officer<br />
then fell asleep, giving her the<br />
opportunity to leave, but she<br />
stayed.<br />
In closing her crossexamination,<br />
Bulger accused<br />
the woman of making up a<br />
“charade” to make the officer’s<br />
life difficult by creating<br />
false allegations to act as a<br />
“smokescreen” for her own<br />
conduct. This was rejected by the<br />
woman.<br />
A few days after the hotel<br />
room encounter the woman<br />
sought medical treatment for her<br />
swollen face and bloodshot eyes,<br />
telling medical staff the swelling<br />
was due to a new mascara she<br />
had tried at the time before she<br />
laid the complaint.<br />
A doctor who specialises in<br />
injuries analysed photographic<br />
evidence of the complainant’s<br />
eyes and said it looked like<br />
the woman had suffered from<br />
haemorrhages in both eyes,<br />
something that was uncommon<br />
in young people.<br />
<strong>The</strong> doctor said the<br />
haemorrhages in young people<br />
can be caused by ongoing<br />
coughing, extensive vomiting,<br />
pressure applied around the neck<br />
or gagging.<br />
She said the woman’s<br />
account of what happened in<br />
the hotel room is an “entirely<br />
reasonable explanation” for the<br />
haemorrhages.<br />
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