Convicted rapist witness in trial

Man admits he was with victim on night of attack but denies abducting and sexually violating her at quarry

Aconvicted rapist who appeared as a witness in a quarry assault trial at the High Court has admitted being with the victim on the night of the incident.

But the man, who has interim name suppression, denied abducting the woman or beating and sexually violating her.

He was called as a witness in the trial of Colin Jack Mitchell, who faces charges of kidnapping, causing grievous bodily harm, and assaulting a woman with intent to sexually violate her.

Mitchell, a truck driver, is alleged to have kidnapped a 23-year-old woman from Grey Lynn in the early hours of February 26 last year, driven her 25km to a stone quarry in Riverhead and assaulted her.

The victim had attended the Gay Pride parade in Ponsonby, and the witness admitted to having met her there.

The court saw CCTV footage of them walking from the Mobil station at the junction of Ponsonby and Karangahape roads, stopping briefly near a taxi, before proceeding to the Family Bar and Club.

Another man was seen greeting the woman and the three entered the Witness bar before the witness was seen leaving alone.

The witness described the woman as “pretty” with “long hair”, and ad- mitted that he was the man in the footage.

“I was trying to find her a taxi because she was a little bit drunk, but I ended up walking her to the Family Bar,” he said.

The witness said the two of them were intoxicated, but the woman insisted on meeting up with friends at the bar to continue partying. He said the last time he saw the woman was when he left her at the bar.

Mitchell’s lawyer, Mark Ryan, told the court the witness had two historical convictions of male rapes female and abduction for sex in 2004.

Although the witness admitted to asking the woman to have sex when they first met that evening, he said he stopped when he found out how intoxicated she was.

Another witness, Neil Bowman, Mitchell’s work manager, told the court he met Mitchell, who was washing his silver Ford Mondeo, at the work premises on the Sunday after the alleged incident.

The Crown alleged the woman had been approached on her way home by Mitchell in his car, and was driven to the quarry where she was hit in the head and sexually assaulted.

The trial before Justice Sally Fitzgerald and a jury will hear evidence from 58 witnesses and is expected to last about three weeks.