A witness in the rape trial of a Northern District's cricketer has been grilled over why he has changed aspects of his statement around what the accused has told him.
But the witness, who has known fast bowler Scott Kuggeleijn for most of his life, says what he originally told police was simply "a mistake" or it must have been "misinterpreted" by the police officer who made his statement after the alleged incident in May last year.
Kuggeleijn is on trial in the Hamilton District Court this week defending one charge of rape.
Taking to the stand yesterday was the man who held the party at his Silverdale house that night.
When questioned about the events before, during and after, the alleged rape, by Crown prosecutor Jacinda Foster, the witness said Kuggeleijn went to his house after being asked to leave the complainant's flat.
"He just said that it was really weird, 'That I had sex with her and she left to go get a drink and [flatmate] came down and wanted me to leave'. He didn't know what was going on. He was confused," the witness said.
Foster then asked him why in his police statement he was quoted as saying the cricketer had said the complainant had "left the room crying".
"Can you tell us the difference between your statement of June 13 and what you're telling the jury today?" Foster asked the witness.
"The reason is either it was my mistake or things got misinterpreted with the policeman writing it. The more I thought about it the more things start to come to me and I'm sitting here today telling the truth."
The witness was also called into question by Foster about what the complainant told him when she and her friends visited him hours after the alleged incident.
He told Foster the complainant said "she said 'no' and that he stopped [trying during the night] and then they woke up and when I asked her 'did you say no?', then she said 'no, I felt like I didn't have a choice'."
"They were the words she used?" Foster asked.
"100 per cent," the witness replied.
In his original statement the witness told police that he asked her "why didn't she say no and she said she felt like she didn't have a choice" but to have sex with him.
The witness - who spoke to police about changes to his statement on Tuesday night and yesterday morning - told the court he spoke to Kuggeleijn again the night of the alleged rape, telling him what the girls had said.
"He was pretty shocked ... [he said] 'I know I was persistent but I didn't rape her' and that she said no a few times in the night and he rolled away and then they woke up and she didn't say 'no' so he thought it was okay."
Earlier yesterday, a flatmate of the alleged victim says she came bursting into her bedroom, struggling to breath and crying uncontrollably just after the incident's alleged to have happened.
"I noticed she was upset and I jumped up and gave [alleged victim] a hug … she was crying a lot and was struggling to breath … [she said] she didn't want to but he kept trying."
After she'd calmed down the alleged victim managed to tell the flatmate that she "didn't want to [have sex] but I couldn't push him off".
- By Belinda Feek of the New Zealand Herald
