(File image). Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
Warning: This story contains details of alleged sexual abuse.
A complainant in the trial of a former political figure accused of sexually abusing two teenagers in the 1990s says he was "groomed".
The defendant, in his 50s, was on trial in the Auckland District Court this week, having pleaded not guilty to nine charges of indecent assault.
The charges related to two male complainants, one who was underage at the time, who said the accused sexually abused them in towns in Auckland and Waikato between 1995 and 1999.
The man has ongoing name suppression but it can be reported that he was not a sitting MP.
It was the Crown's case the accused "took advantage" of two teenage boys he was mentoring at a sports club by giving them alcohol at parties and abusing them when they were drunk.
The man refuted these allegations; his lawyer Ian Brookie said the two complainants were not telling the truth and the events they described simply did not happen.
Yesterday, the jury watched a long, video-recorded police interview in which the first complainant detailed being sexually assaulted on two separate occasions.
On the first occasion, in early 1995, the then-15-year-old complainant had been staying with the man away from home as part of a sports club trip.
The young man told the police the sports group had been drinking after a competition day and gone from a pub to their campground, where he was supplied with rum and coke beverages.
"I was plied with it ... I would have been plastered by then, my little self would have not have handled that amount of alcohol well," he told the police interviewer.
He said he took himself to bed and later woke up naked with the defendant, also naked, lying on the bed next to him.
The complainant told the police the man touched his penis, put his own penis on the complainant's anus and touched the complainant's anus with his hands.
"I felt disgusting, I felt ... the knowledge of what it was was the most disgusting thing about it.
"The physical intention behind it also drove me to freeze because I didn't know if he was going to put his penis in my anus. Then I blacked out, I don't think I can recall how he finished himself off, I'm sorry I can't."
He said he felt "remote, almost out of body" and that he knew what was happening was "a hundred shades of wrong."
"I realise now I was groomed into that position."
'Just insane' it was happening again, complainant alleges
Recalling the second incident, the complainant said it happened more than a year later at a gathering at the defendant's house.
He told the police he would have been 16 or 17-years-old at the time and consumed alcohol and cannabis, supplied by the defendant, at the party.
"That combined to make me very ill. I passed out because of the effects of it."
He said his friend disappeared and he later woke up in the defendant's bed, with the defendant lying naked alongside him again.
"This time I was older and I knew what it was progressing towards."
"I woke up and found my clothes were not in the correct position. I think my top had been removed... My top had been moved up, because he had his hand and was rubbing my chest."
The complainant said he was partially undressed, with his pants at his feet, and recalled saying he did not want to be touched.
"I couldn't believe this, this was just insane that it was happening again and I just panicked.
"When he goes to take my hand down to his penis, I took it away and said what the f***, I'm not doing this. I said I don't want to go back there, I need a woman, I'm just not this way inclined."
"He laughed and said where are you going to find a woman this time of night."
The young man told the police he then gathered his clothes and left the room to sleep on the couch or floor of another part of the house.
The jury was expected to hear more from this complainant on Tuesday, including any cross-examination from the defence.
The trial before Judge David Sharp was set down for five days in the Auckland District Court.
Where to get help:
Victim Support 0800 842 846
Rape Crisis 0800 88 33 00
HELP Call 24/7 (Auckland): 09 623 1700, (Wellington): 04 801 6655 - push 0 at the menu
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) 022 344 0496
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
