Soldier fell ‘into shock’ after party

A soldier says he went into shock and ‘‘felt sick to my stomach’’ on a taxi ride home from a party, during which he allegedly indecently assaulted a female colleague.

But he felt things were consensual, as they had been flirting at a party when she put her legs on his lap. However, the woman says Glynn Pukerau Newton both indecently assaulted and sexually violated her.

In the Palmerston North District Court yesterday, Newton’s trial was played a video interview he gave police shortly before being charged.

The charges stem from a night in October 2016, when the pair met in Palmerston North bar The Daily before going to a house party, then sharing a taxi ride to their accommodation.

The woman told the court earlier in the trial she was pretending to be asleep on a couch at the party when Newton violated her.

She also pretended to be asleep in the taxi when Newton put his hand in her lap. In his video interview, Newton said he had been drinking since 5pm, before going to The Daily until it closed at 3am. He caught the same taxi as the woman to the house party, where they sat on the same couch.

She put her legs in his lap, and he touched her, he said. ‘‘She had no problems with that. It seemed consensual to me. She didn’t tell me to bugger off or anything like that. She lifted her legs up and placed them on my lap – that’s flirting to me.’’

There were lots of people coming in and out of the room and the woman did not tell him or anyone else that anything was wrong, Newton said.

The pair later caught the same taxi. They sat in the back while a friend of the woman sat in the front.

Newton said he and the woman talked for most of the taxi ride, and he placed his hand on her lap when they were near the destination.

The friend in the front seat turned around and swore at him, at which point he looked across to see the woman lying back.

‘‘I stopped immediately. I went into a state of shock and just felt sick to my stomach. I’m sitting there looking around going, ‘oh God’.’’

He again thought his actions were consensual, saying he thought she was awake because they had been talking. He wanted to speak to the woman and her friend about what happened, but not right there in the taxi.

He could not see them after paying the fare, so sent the woman a message via Facebook. He got no response.

He approached a friend of the woman a couple of weeks afterwards, asking if the woman wanted to speak about what happened in the taxi. The woman’s friend said she did not.

‘‘That whole night I thought all the stuff was consensual,’’ he said in his interview. ‘‘Yeah, the taxi ride probably looks real bad. All I can say is I didn’t know she was asleep. I wish I never got into that taxi with them.’’

The trial continues.