Woman claims Air Force rapist was ‘Groper Roper’
A former Air Force employee has alleged she was groped, locked in a cage and constantly threatened by sex predator Robert Roper while they were both working at Auckland’s Whenuapai airbase.
The woman, who has name suppression, is suing the Crown for compensation, arguing Air Force bosses knew Roper was preying on young women among the ranks, including her, and did little about it.
Roper was jailed in 2014 for 13 years for sexual offending against five women in the 1970s and 1980s.
Yesterday, the woman gave evidence in a civil case at the High Court in Auckland, where she said Roper’s reputation of inappropriate behaviour earned him the nickname ‘’Groper Roper’’.
The woman told the court she was stationed at Whenuapai in the 1980s, shortly after she joined the Air Force.
‘‘My life became hell under Sergeant Roper ... He could turn nasty very quickly, as he did on many occasions,’’ she said. ‘‘I learnt to live with this fear in my military career. It was military protocol, we did as [we] were ordered.’’
The woman alleged Roper rubbed up against her, grabbed her bottom, breasts, and upper thighs, and tried to undo her bra straps.
She told the court she repeatedly disclosed his behaviour to senior staff, but no action was taken.
‘‘The more I told him to stop the more he thought it was a joke – it was like he got a kick out of it.’’
The woman said she would often be ordered by Roper to drive him to his home after drinking sessions at the base. During the drives, he locked the vehicle doors and tried to put his hand up her skirt, she said.
‘‘Always when we arrived at this house he would grab my arm so firm, squeezing my upper arm so it hurt, then he would threaten me not to tell a soul or else my job would be on the line.’’
The woman told the court she complained to superiors about the late-night drives, but nothing was done.
‘‘I was always fearful of being assaulted worse than I already had been, being raped or beaten up or murdered on that country road between Whenuapai Hobsonville.’’
During her testimony, the woman broke down as she said Roper allegedly locked her in a cage for short periods of time over a three-year period.
‘‘I vividly remember the terror and fear I felt when he would lock me in the tyre cage, the outcome if I didn’t do as he said, the loud banging as he bashed the large iron tyre bar on the counters of the tyre bay.
‘‘The feeling of him prodding me with the iron bar was horrific . . . Sometimes he would lock me in there for more than an hour.’’
The woman said she left the Air Force in the late 1980s, and had since suffered from severe mental health problems because of the stress she suffered under Roper.
She told the court when she left the Air Force she did not disclose Roper’s behaviour any more than she already had. and
When Roper was charged in 2014 for a range of sex crimes, the woman contacted police and made a statement about her allegations.
She has since brought the prosecution against the Crown and Roper.
Under cross-examination, Roper’s lawyer John Mather proposed to the woman she had made up her account.
He questioned her over whether over time she had got her memories confused, placing the blame on Roper, when it was others who may have misbehaved.
The woman repeatedly denied she had lied, reiterating her claims about Roper’s behaviour.
‘‘How would you feel like? Being in that car?,’’ the woman said.
Roper was in court for the hearing, sitting in the dock alongside two security guards.
The hearing, which is set down for eight days, is continuing.