Woman upset, taken in by strangers

A woman allegedly raped by a stranger in a car was seen dancing with and kissing the man who offered to give her a lift home, a court has heard.

Matthew James Butland, 37, is on trial in the Palmerston North District Court, charged with raping and sexually violating a woman in the early hours of May 30, 2015, in a car in the city.

The woman says she got into a car with her friend and a stranger, who offered to give her a lift home after a night out to drink away the pain of going through a miscarriage.

She woke in the car to find her friend had been dropped off. The woman was then forced into a sexual act to get her handbag and money back from the man, she said.

The man then raped her, got her out the car, threw the bag minus her cash at her and drove off, she said.

The woman’s friend, who Stuff is not naming for legal reasons, told the court yesterday she met up with the woman onmay 29.

They were having coffee and the conversation turned to the miscarriage, after which they went to get food and alcohol.

They had drinks before deciding to have a night out to lift the woman’s mood, the friend said.

They went to The Cobb and had drinks, but ended up having to leave after problems between the friend and the bar manager, who was her cousin.

They then went to Shooters, which has since become The Daily, and had more drinks.

The complainant was drunk, but not paralytic or vomiting, the friend said. ‘‘She was still in control.’’

The complainant started talking to a group of men and ended up dancing with one.

The friend saw her getting close to and kissing that man. ‘‘I thought: ‘Chur, sis has found someone’.’’

That contradicted the complainant, who said on Wednesday she was not intimate with anyone in the bar.

The friend said they were offered a ride home by the same man from the dance floor.

The plan was for the two women to go back to the complainant’s house, but the friend went to her partner’s place.

She only left the complainant with the man because she understood he would take her home, she said.

‘‘That was the plan, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it.’’

Christo Bezuidenhout said he woke in the middle of the night hearing footsteps, then someone at the door of his Hokowhitu house.

A woman was at his front door wanting to use his phone, saying she had been raped and her money stolen.

She kept repeating she had been raped, he said. ‘‘It was like she was trying to come to grips with it.’’

Celeste Bezuidenhout said she went to help her husband and noticed the woman was not in a good way.

‘‘She was quite terrified, distressed.’’

The trial before Judge Lance Rowe and a jury continues.