Sexual violation charge denied

Press, 3 February 1987, Page 8

Sexual violation charge denied

While her de facto husband was absent, the accused went to the home of a woman at 1.20 a.m. and told her if she “turned it up” he would forget about, the $2OO her de facto husband owed him, Mr Justice Hardie Boys and a jury were told in the High Court yesterday. The trial of Mark Cyril Woodall, aged 26, a self employed woodcutter, of sexually violating a woman, aged 25, with his fingers, will conclude today. Mr Brent Stanaway appears for the Crown, and Mr Nicholas Till for Woodall. •

The complainant said that about 12.30 a.m. she and her de facto husband were awakened by a friend who wanted a ride somewhere. Her husband took him and she did not get out of bed.

About 1.20 a.m. she was awakened by knocking, and at first she thought that it was her husband returning. She went to the door in her nightie and knickers and found it was Woodall who asked if he could come in and wait for her husband. After putting on a fulllength dressing gown they went into the lounge. Woodall refused a cup of coffee because he said that he had had too much to drink. He started talk- z

ing about the money her husband owed him and she did not know what he was talking about “The . next thing he leaned over and touched my hair and I pulled away,” the woman said. “I told him: ‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you because my husband will kill you’.” There was a struggle, and Woodall threw her down on the couch. She was moving around because she did not want to get hit on the head, but she could not get away from him.

He undid her dressing gown, pulled at her nightie arid fondled her breasts. When she told him that her children were in the house, Woodall had replied that he did not care about kids, and he indecently assaulted her with his hand.

He attempted to have sexual intercourse with her, but failed because he could not get an erection as he had had too much to drink.

Eventually the woman said that she managed to break free from him. She ran next door and jumped over the gate because it was locked. She fell on to her knees on the other side and was screaming for help. The woman neighbour advised her to ring the

police, and she told them that an attempt had been made to rape her. In evidence, Woodall said that he had known the complainant for about five months, and on previous occasions they had exchanged glances which indicated that something was happening between them.

He went to the house to collect the $2OO he/was owed, not to rape the woman. He disagreed with the woman’s evidence that she struggled or that she told him to “piss off’ or anything like that

When he told the woman that he would forget about the $2OO if she turned it up he was only joking to see what she would say, Woodall said.

She just sat there and sort of smiled. They smoked a big joint (cannabis) and then "just started to get into it” She did not ask him to stop. She was kissing him back and had her arms around him.

They went into the kitchen and continued “pashing up” and embracing.

That went on for some time and then suddenly she just “took off’ and shouted for help. Until that stage she had not rejected his advances, he said.