Case to Court of Appeal

Auckland: The lawyer representing a police officer jailed for raping his colleague says there has been a grave miscarriage of justice.

Jamie Anthony Foster was found guilty after a jury trial in Auckland in March of groping and later raping a female officer.

Yesterday, he took his case to the Court of Appeal, where his lawyer, Paul Borich, argued the jury did not hear all of the relevant evidence. He also criticised elements of how the trial ran in the specialist sexual violence court.

Mr Borich said the use of faulty screens, set up to shield a complainant from the defendant, was not fair on his client and he also criticised the Crown’s closing submissions — notably Fiona Culliney’s opening and closing addresses in which she told the jury Foster had ‘‘helped himself’’ to the woman.

Justices Courtney, Woolford and Mander reserved their decision. — RNZ