Woman describes assault by actor

An ex-model has told the Auckland District Court a wellknown actor grinned after he pulled down his pants and told her to “give it a little kiss”.

The man, who has name suppression, denies 10 counts of indecent assault and two of unlawful sexual connection.

The Crown says the man, who headed a well-known modelling agency’s acting division, approached four women for one-on-one sessions.

During those private classes, between 2010 and 2013, he allegedly kissed the women and touched their breasts and genitalia during exercises called “Push me/Pull Me” and “Let me in/Let me out”.

The man says he used legitimate acting exercises and that the touching never happened.

The four complainants conspired after he ended an extra-marital affair with one of them, his lawyer says.

Yesterday afternoon, one of the women told the court their secret one-on-one sessions became increasingly sexual.

He told her the contact was to advance her as an actor and that it was helping her.

It escalated to a point when he pushed her down in a chair, unbuttoned his trousers and showed her his penis, she said.

“He said, ‘ Come on, just a little kiss. Come on’.”

The woman, who was in her early 20s at the time, said: “Eventually I complied. I just closed my eyes and leaned forward and did a peck.”

When crown prosecutor Claire Paterson asked why she complied, the woman said: “The same reason as all the other acts — [he] had become someone that I trusted and I genuinely believed he was trying to help me and had my best interests at heart. And I felt close to him as well.”

The sexual contact during their sessions stopped for a few weeks but when it returned, the relationship had changed and they’d become romantically involved, the woman said. They had sex once and soon afterwards, in July 2013, the affair ended.

At a dinner with friends, it was raised that other girls had similar experiences with the acting coach. “Suddenly everything became clear . . . I realised that I’d been emotionally, psychologically manipulated.”

The coach’s lawyer, Ron Mansfield, said the evidence would be “hotly contested”.