Man on rape count sent for trial

Press, 16 July 1986, Page 6

Man on rape count sent for trial

An unemployed Christchurch man, aged 24, who pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges of rape, assault of a female and possession of an offensive weapon, is to appear in the High Court on September 5.

Judge Hattaway ordered that John Christopher Sharnock remain in police custody until the High Court trial, after the hearing of depositions in the District Court yesterday.

The complainant, aged 18, said in her written evidence that Sharnock had punched her around the head after she jumped through a front window of an Avonside house in which she alleged Sharnock raped her on March 15 this year. The complainant said she escaped and ran down the street naked and screaming hysterically. Her description of the incident included her arrival on the evening of March 14 at Sharnock’s flat at his invitation.

The complainant said that if she had known that Sharnock’s girlfriend was not in the flat she would not have accepted the invitation. On arrival at the flat the complainant said that Sharnock locked the front door after she entered the house, and she began to realise that she was in

some danger. During the meal Sharnock told the complainant that his girlfriend had moved out of the flat that morning. . . The complainant tried to escape by saying that she would walk home while she and Sharnock were looking at his tomatoes in the garden, she said.

“He grabbed me, put his hand over my mouth and twisted my arm up my back,” she said.

Sharnock threatened that he would hit the complainant with a hammer if she did not have sexual intercourse with him, she alleged.

“He dragged me inside into his bedroom and threw me on his bed,” she said.

After allegedly being raped and jumping through the window with a camisole top over her face, the complainant said she ran to another house in the street where she knew a woman who lived there.

The first witness to appear yesterday was the woman who knew the complainant and lived in the house on the same street

She described how she had found the complainant in an hysterical state trying to enter her house.

The witness comforted the complainant and called the police, she said. Shane Michael Quinn, who lived in the flat adjoining Sharnock’s flat described how he . heard glass shattered and screaming close to his bedroom - on the early morning of March’ls. !

He said he was too afraid to get out of his bed to investigate. Adam Baker, who lives on the same street said he also heard the shatter of glass and hysterical screaming at the same time, and called the police. Paul John Diamond, who lives in a street near Sharnock’s flat described how he heard glass shattering and hysterical screaming. He ran towards where the scream came from and saw a yellow Ford Capri car come out of the driveway of Sharnock’s flat

The complainant’s boyfriend was the fifth witness and he explained why he was in Nelson during the time of the alleged rape. Constable Paul Wood’s evidence was read to the court, Including an account of where he found the yellow Ford Capri car belonging to Sharnock, after the alleged incident He gave evidence of finding blood stains in the car. Detective Constable Stuart Douglas Gray gave evidence surrounding his investigation of the alleged rape and tile arrest of Sharnock. Dr Margaret Moira Metherell, who examined the complainant during the early ‘ morning; of March 15, the various injuries on the complainant’s body that she found. _ 1 Dr Metherell said'she removed some small fragments of glass from lacerations on the Complainant’s body. A vagina! examination of the complainant showed no signs of abnormality or trauma,; Dr Metherell said. * vh ■" Mr Mark Zaiifeh appeared for the Crown in this hearing. -Mr. Nigel Hampton led the defence for