Woman ‘seduced lover’s teen son’

An Upper Hutt woman is accused of seducing a 14-year-old boy, the son of her lesbian lover.

She says he raped her, and that police did nothing except charge her with having sex with the underage boy.

The woman, who can not be identified to protect the boy, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of sexual connection with a young person and wilfully attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The Crown alleges that, after a party wound down at a home the woman shared with the boy’s mother, she and the boy ended up on a living room couch. There was sexual contact and intercourse.

Later, it is alleged that she lied about the incident to police by making a false statement.

The woman says she did not lie. She went to make a complaint of rape to police after waking up to find that the boy was having sex with her.

The incident ended her relationship with the boy’s mother.

Crown lawyer Adele Garrick said the woman was intoxicated after drinking with friends and the complainant at their home on April 24 last year.

She wanted sex but regretted it the next day, Garrick said. To rationalise it, she made up a false account, told her friends and partner, and it snowballed into a complaint to police.

Garrick said the jury had to ask themselves whether the accused was willing or was she asleep, and did she then make up a deliberate falsehood to tell police.

The complainant had told the jury about the woman rubbing her backside against him, and both had been involved in removing their underwear.

‘‘They both wanted this to happen,’’ Garrick said. ‘‘He said she was drunk and flirty with him that night.’’

She said that the woman being lesbian did not mean it could not happen, and that drink could make people act in ways they would not otherwise.

Defence lawyer Michael Bott said the jury had to decide if the evidence had been properly and thoroughly investigated.

If there was any doubt that she had wanted to have sex with the boy, the jury members had to acquit, he said.

‘‘She believes she was raped by her stepson,’’ he told the jury.

Bott said it did not make sense that she would go to the police to lie. She agonised about losing her partner over it.

‘‘She was fearful and she was in a dilemma. She goes to the police for help and what does she get? A prosecution.

‘‘They don’t believe her and instead go after her. Where was the fair investigation?’’

Police did not send off a rape kit, and that was not good enough, he added.

The jury is expected to begin its deliberations today.