Kuggeleijn says he felt alleged victim enjoyed the sex

HAMILTON: A wellknown cricketer on trial for rape says he felt the alleged victim enjoyed the sex and felt it was consensual.

Northern Districts cricketer Scott Kuggeleijn took to the stand on day two of his retrial in the Hamilton District Court yesterday, after the Crown closed its case.

Kuggeleijn, who denies a charge of rape from an alleged incident at a Hamilton East flat on May 17, 2015, was quizzed by his counsel, Philip Morgan QC, about the sex that took place early that morning.

Testifying before a jury of six men and six women, Kuggeleijn said he ‘‘thought [the complainant] was enjoying it because she was breathing heavily and just acting the same as I was when I was touching her’’.

However, ‘‘pretty quickly’’ after the sex finished, she got out of bed and went to get a glass of water, before returning without saying anything.

Kuggeleijn denied the complainant’s testimony that he pinned her arms down, that she tried to wriggle away and that she tried to push him off her.

‘‘That’s not true,’’ he said to each accusation.

After the alleged rape, Kuggeleijn said he ran to his cousin’s house where the party was held the night before.

He told his cousin and the complainant’s flatmate that she ‘‘was keen’’ for sex that morning.

‘‘She was enjoying it, yeah.’’ He said he went to the flat because he found it ‘‘weird’’ the complainant was upset and at being asked to leave after the sex had occurred.

He was told later that afternoon the complainant felt that she couldn’t say no.

She felt that he had been persistent and was quite forceful.

He said he texted the victim, via his cousin, to apologise.

‘‘I thought I should let her know that I was sorry . . . because it was a pretty big shock to me and not very pleasant.’’

Mr Morgan also questioned his client about the pair’s actions at a party earlier in the night.

Kuggeleijn had commented to a friend that the complainant ‘‘loved penis’’.

‘‘I hadn’t known her for very long and there’s not many women who you haven’t known for very long who grab your groin like that.’’

When asked why he asked the complainant to leave Keystone Bar so soon after arriving — 15 minutes — Kuggeleijn replied that they were ‘‘clearly getting on with each other and I just wanted to see where things would go’’.

Arriving back at her flat, he recalled they got into bed together and eventually taking off her underwear, asking if she was on the pill and then getting on top of her.

It was then, he said, that the complainant said ‘‘no’’ to sex. Their sexual encounter began again but again he was told ‘‘no’’ to sex.

When asked about the complainant’s evidence that she said ‘‘no’’ ‘‘dozens of times’’, Kuggeleijn said that ‘‘was a lie’’.

‘‘I tried [having sex] twice, like she might have said ‘no, no’ a few times but it wasn’t dozens of times.’’

Mr Morgan asked him how he felt ‘‘being let down at the last minute’’ by the complainant in regards to sex that night and Kuggeleijn said it was ‘‘a bit unusual’’ but ‘‘it wasn’t a big deal’’.

Yesterday afternoon a witness accused Kuggeleijn of boasting of his sexual conquest to friends after the alleged rape, saying he had ‘‘cracked it’’.

A former Waikato University student, who cannot be named, is a flatmate of the complainant’s but had stayed the night at a flat where a party had been held the previous night.

She said the defendant had walked into the room she was in just after the alleged rape had occurred, and said that he had ‘‘cracked it’’.

‘‘Scott Kuggeleijn returned in the room about 8am and said that it was a long walk home and that it had been awkward or weird [with the victim].

‘‘He said everything was OK and then she began crying, also that he had been trying for a while and that he had finally cracked it.’’

Another witness, Kuggeleijn’s friend, Agni Bhorkar, had socialised with the complainant and Kuggeleijn at a party before they went into town.

He said the woman was ‘‘flirty’’ with both him and Kuggeleijn.

He said the accused told him he thought ‘‘she was flirty and he thought that she would probably love penis’’.— NZME