Three hours for jury to return rape-trial not-guilty verdict

A man was accused of raping a woman in her own bed, before he turned over and sobbed.

Eighteen months later, he sobbed in the Palmerston North District Court dock when he was found not guilty.

A jury took three hours yesterday to acquit Peter James Ross, 38, on a charge of raping the woman one night in June 2016. She was alone at her Feilding house, while her husband was sober-driving a friend home. Ross was visiting.

The Crown said Ross raped the woman, who cannot be named, holding her down when she tried to move away. The woman said Ross sobbed after committing the act.

But the defence successfully argued that Ross was led into the bedroom by the woman, who then performed a sex act on him. Her subsequent claims of rape were false.

Judge Stephanie Edwards summed the case up yesterday morning. ‘‘The defence case is that [Ross] denies that any sexual intercourse occurred,’’ the judge told the jury of eight women and four men.

‘‘If you are satisfied sexual intercourse did occur, the Crown must also satisfy you that the complainant did not consent to sexual intercourse and that the defendant did not believe on reasonable grounds that she was consenting.’’

The Crown argued that traces of Ross’ semen on the woman’s night gown showed the pair had sex, and that the woman’s account of what happened should be believed.

Edwards said the defence argued that the rape complaint was false, and the woman had led Ross on. The woman wasn’t honest with police, nor when she gave evidence.

She lied about her earlier interactions with Ross, and liked his ‘‘flirting’’, finding him ‘‘charming and attractive’’. The false complaint was motivated by fear about what her husband might do if he found out what happened, the defence said.

After the verdict, Ross was jailed for nine months on an unrelated charge of driving while disqualified, but he will be released immediately because he has already served about a year in custody.