Accused of video taping rape

The Southland Times

RAPE ACCUSED: Mark John Hird is accused of video-taping himself raping a woman and laughing as he watched the footage in front of her.

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A man on drugs videotaped himself raping a woman before laughing while watching the footage in front of her, a jury in the Invercargill District Court has been told.

Mark John Hird, 27, is on trial in the Invercargill District Court after denying charges of rape, sexual violation, attempted sexual violation, kidnapping, injuring with intent to injure and burglary. He admitted another charge of assault at the start of his trial yesterday.

All seven charges relate to the same incident at a rural Southland house this year.

The complainant said she was in bed asleep with a man when Hird arrived in his vehicle. He yelled outside the bedroom window, asking who was with her in the house, before climbing through a laundry window, she said.

Hird then pushed past the woman and began punching the man in the head and tried to stomp on his head, she said.

After pushing them both into the bedroom, Hird asked why the other man got sex and he didn't, and he wanted some, she said.

He pushed the other man into a wardrobe before repeatedly asking her for sex. She said no and he raped and sexually violated her, she said.

Hird videotaped the sexual offending and when it was over he asked her if she wanted to watch it, which she did not, she said. "He watched it himself and while he was doing that he was laughing."

Under cross-examination from Hird's lawyer, Roger Eagles, the woman said she and Hird had been videotaped having sex before and she had agreed to it. They had also watched the footage together in the past, she said.

Mr Eagles said, in his opening account, that Hird had earlier in the night smoked cannabis and had what he thought was a tablet of LSD.

He had not raped the woman, Mr Eagles said. She had invited Hird to have sex with her because she thought it would mean he would then leave the house.

He said the other man had not been forced into the wardrobe, but hopped into it himself and could have slid the door open at any time and left. Mr Eagles also said Hird admitted punching the other man but had never attempted to stomp on his head.