A government employee accused of making a secret sex tape told police the allegation was "bulls..." and had ruined his life.
The defendant, aged in his 30s, was on trial before the Dunedin District Court yesterday after pleading not guilty to a charge of making an intimate visual recording.
His occupation and name remain suppressed.
The court heard the man met the complainant through his work in February 2021 before they met up again more than a year later following a chance meeting at her workplace.
The woman said she received a message on Instagram later that day.
"Hey good to see you today. Good to see you’re in a better place ... good luck with your studies," the man wrote.
She recalled being "excited" he had found her online and there followed multiple messages, which included her sending nude photos and videos.
The couple later had sex at her home in May 2022, part of which the defendant recorded on his phone.
When interviewed by police nearly two years after the incident, he put the timing of the allegation down to the fact he had recently ignored the complainant in social settings.
"This is bulls... ... this has ruined my life," he said.
"It’s a mistake. I slept with the wrong person."
The man told police the woman had explicitly allowed him to do whatever he wanted when they met in May 2022 and had agreed to their encounter being recorded.
"As far as I’m aware, not to be rude ... I’m disgusted I even went there," the defendant said.
The woman freely acknowledged she was working on initiating an intimate meeting with the defendant through her X-rated messages.
"The fact he messaged me and sought me out online indicated he was interested, so from that moment I thought, ‘Yes, I could have sex with this man’," she said.
The woman told the court she believed the man was "superior" because of his job and felt some pressure to continue messaging him because of that imbalance.
The defendant visited her several days later, at her request, and the complainant recounted the consensual acts which took place.
"I turned around to look at him ... and it was at that moment he had his phone out in his hand with the camera pointing at me," she said.
There had been no prior discussion about him filming the event, the woman stressed.
The sexual activity stopped abruptly when her flatmate returned home and she said the defendant then "snuck out of the front door".
He told police in his 2024 interview, though, that the return of other residents simply coincided with his crisis in conscience.
He said he "freaked out" and bolted to his car, where he repeatedly punched the steering wheel and berated himself over his error in judgement.
"It’s against everything I believe in," the defendant told police.
The complainant said she did not raise the issue of the cellphone recording at the time, but later that evening messaged the man to ask what his intentions were.
"You’ve got it all on camera though. You going to keep it for yourself?" the complainant wrote.
She told the court she was not more vocal with her worries because she was concerned the man would distribute the video.
"It was just ballsy. I just couldn’t understand why he would do it," the woman told the court.
Mrs Stevens suggested they had agreed beforehand to filming their encounter, an assertion the complainant denied.
"This is a complete lie that you did not consent," the lawyer said.
"You were completely on board with being filmed."
"The sex was consensual, the filming was not," the woman repeated.
The defendant later said he had deleted the sex tape and sent her a screenshot of his camera roll to reassure her.
The court heard the defendant’s wife later contacted the woman and received "a blow-by-blow account" of what happened.
The complainant said she only gave her graphic version of events at the wife’s request.
She messaged that with regards to the filming: "I just went with the flow and felt horrible afterwards".
Judge Emma Parsons, who heard the case in the absence of a jury, reserved her decision, which will be released this week.
rob.kidd@odt.co.nz , Court reporter
