A 20-year-old says a woman accepted his request to get into her bed before an incident that has led to him being put on trial for sexual violation.
Henry Hamish Millar told police and security staff that after encounters with the woman at a hotel and at her university accommodation during the evening, he had gone into her room and asked if he could sleep there.
Millar said the woman said yes and moved over so that he could get into bed beside her.
The Crown said in the Christchurch District Court trial that the woman had been asleep when Millar got into the bed and she woke to find him with his finger in her genitals, hurting her.
Defence counsel James Rapley QC delivered his closing address to the jury on Wednesday, on the third day of the trial before Judge Jane Farish. Millar denies the charge of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection.
Mr Rapley pointed out he had questioned the woman about whether it was possible Millar had made the request, and she had moved over, but could not remember it.
He said she had replied in her evidence: “I suppose it is possible, but I have no memory of it.”
The Crown said the incident at university accommodation had occurred early on July 22, 2018, after the woman had had a night out with friends, including drinking at a hotel, and then returning to her accommodation and falling asleep in her room while she was eating a bowl of pasta.
Other residents and visitors – including Millar – went into her room and woke her and took the bowl of pasta off her bed, before leaving soon after. A few minutes later, Millar went back to the room.
Mr Rapley told the jury they would be left with a “reasonable uncertainty” about whether the woman had consented. There was also uncertainty about whether Millar thought she was consenting.
“I suggest to you that you will be troubled by her memory because it is flawed on specific events – those events that don’t fit with her narrative,” he said.
He pointed to varying assessments of her intoxication, and her comment in the police interview that she had not seen Millar and did not speak to him nor kiss him at the hotel earlier in the evening. The encounter was recorded on security camera at the hotel, showing them talking and kissing.
Mr Rapley asked: “Are you worried that she has misled the police to try to achieve her outcome?”
Judge Farish will sum up on Thursday before the jury retires to consider its verdict.
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