‘Forced’ into a sexual act

A night on the town to numb the pain from a miscarriage ended with a woman having her rent money stolen and being raped in a car, a court has heard.

The woman cried, rocked in her seat and hugged a cushion – another emblazoned with ‘‘Good Vibes’’ sat nearby – while giving evidence via audio-visual link in the Palmerston North District Court yesterday.

Matthew James Butland, 27, is on trial, charged with raping and sexually violating a woman in the early hours of May 30, 2015.

The woman said she had lost her baby and was still going through the process of miscarrying the day before, so invited a friend over to her house.

They had drinks before heading out to Palmerston North bars.

‘‘I wanted to get as drunk as I could to numb the feeling and not be alone,’’ she said.

She organised a babysitter before going out, taking $500 cash to pay rent and bills, as well as another $100 to spend in town.

She did not want to leave the rent and bills money at the house with the babysitter, she said.

The duo went to The Cobb and had drinks there, but had to leave when the woman’s friend started a scene.

‘‘She was calling the bartender at The Cobb a P-whore.’’

They were denied entry to The Royal before going to Shooters, which has since been turned into The Daily.

She had more to drink and had a dance, but soon wanted to go home, she said. Her friend said ‘‘cuzzie bro’’ would take them home and introduced her to a tall man with a white car parked outside the bar.

She fell asleep in the car’s front seat – her friend was in the back – and woke, with her friend gone, in an area she did not recognise.

The man took her handbag and told her she would not get it back unless she performed a sexual act on him.

She told him she did not want to because she was still going through her miscarriage, to which he replied by shushing her and saying he cared about her.

She did what the man asked, then he suddenly jumped on top of her and raped her, she said.

‘‘I was afraid.

‘‘I was hurting. I was miscarrying and I had someone ... violating me.’’

He got off, gave her the bag and started driving off after she got out the car, she said.

The money was missing from her bag.

She ran to a nearby house and told the occupants she had been raped.

While being questioned by defence lawyer Hugh Leabourn she denied any sexual activity on the Shooters dance floor.

‘‘Why would I be interested in touching a man when I’m going through a miscarriage?’’

In her opening statement, Crown prosecutor Miriam Wilkinson said tests found Butland’s DNA matched semen found in and on the woman’s underwear.

The trial continues.