Supreme Court GUILTY OF RAPE

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30586, 31 October 1964, Page 21

Supreme Court GUILTY OF RAPE

Man Remanded For Sentence A 30-year-old married man, Alexander James Collins, was found guilty by a Supreme Court jury yesterday of raping a woman on a deserted roadside at Prebbleton on September 14 last year. Mr W. A. Wilson appeared for Collins, who was arrested in Brisbane on September 14 this year and brought back to Christchurch. Mr Justice Wilson remanded Collins in custody for sentence on a date to be fixed. Mr C. M. Roper appeared for the Crown. His Honour said in his summing-up that it was not seriously challenged that the woman was taken by Collins and two others to a lonely spot where there was no-one in sight—not even a house—and that she was there dragged from the car and Tod and, she said, Collins had intercourse with her against her will. Referring to the delay before complaining to the police, His Honour said it took some courage for a woman of sensibility to go to the police and make a complaint, knowing that it was certain to lead to appearances in Court. The jury must set against that the fact that the woman complained to her sister-in-law at the first opportunity. His Honour warned the jury not to mistake mere passivity for consent. The fact that there was no vigorous fight did not necessarily mean that the woman consented. There was a difference between a passive attitude when resistance was futile and a willing acquiescence.