Woman claims assault while partner slept

A woman who says she was sexually assaulted by a man while her partner was sleeping next to her is furious a judge granted him bail.

The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, met a man at a train station a year ago and they struck up a conversation.

“He was with his mates and looked pretty rough and rugged. It was Covid and he had a bandana over his face. We got talking on the train and I thought, ‘ Wow, what an amazing guy’.”

When the train stopped in West Auckland the woman offered the man cannabis. She phoned her partner who lived nearby to join them, and before leaving exchanged phone numbers with the man.

At 2.20am the woman said she woke up to a “full on” kiss on her lips and her breast being bitten savagely.

“I felt something wasn’t right. It wasn’t until I reached out on the bed and realised my partner was lying right beside me. I thought, ‘Oh my f***ing God, if my partner is lying beside me who the hell is this man on top of me’?”

The intruder got off the bed and the woman yelled at her partner to wake up. He initially didn’t believe the woman and checked the footage being recorded on his sensor motion camera, which the woman didn’t even know existed.

After viewing the footage, police arrested a man they allege is the same person the woman met at the train station. He was later charged.

“The footage shows [a man] breaking in. The door was open because it was a hot night. He walks into the bedroom, stares at me and starts before he kisses me and bites my breast.”

The woman also felt “sick” when she discovered her partner had a motion sensor camera that captured the couple having sex.

“The police asked me if I knew I was being taped having sex.

“I had no idea.

“When I found out I walked out of his bedsit and have never looked back.”

The accused was released on bail at the end of last year.

The woman has a warning for others: “Lock your doors and windows. This guy is dangerous. If he’s done what he did to me with my partner lying beside me — anything is possible.”

She added: “I am still traumatised about what’s happened and terrified he will find me. I can’t believe a judge gave him bail.”