Jury watches digital footage of alleged 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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Images of the alleged rape of a Southland woman were shown to a 12-person jury in the Invercargill District Court yesterday.

The footage had been filmed with a digital camera by the man accused of raping her, Mark John Hird, and was presented by the Crown as evidence against him.

The video showed Hird having sexual intercourse with the woman, who was crying.

It also briefly showed her holding her hand over her head.

At the end she was heard to say "disgusting" and screamed "F*** you".

Experts had retrieved the deleted footage from Hird's digital camera and put together about three minutes of footage for the jury to view.

Hird, 27, is on trial on charges of rape, sexual violation, attempted sexual violation, two counts of kidnapping, injuring with intent to injure and burglary.

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

In a police interview with Hird in the days after the alleged offending, also shown to the jury yesterday, Hird denied going to the woman's house on the day in question.

However, he agreed to another interview with Detective Chris Lucy soon after and admitted going to her house.

He said he was "pretty wasted" on acid when he arrived and saw another car in the driveway.

He broke into the house by climbing through a window and saw another man in the house with the woman, he said.

"I started laying him out, I just lost the plot.

"I just kept punching him."

They then began talking and he realised the woman had also lied to the other man about who she was seeing, Hird said. "I ended up apologising to him ... "

He said sex had been the last thing on his mind at that time, but the woman had offered him sex if he would leave them alone.

He ended up agreeing, he said.

Hird asked the other man to get into a cupboard while he had sex with the woman because he didn't want him watching, he said.

He told Detective Lucy the woman was probably under a bit of pressure to have sex with him, but he had never put her under any pressure.

He said he filmed the encounter with his digital camera but deleted it the next day after he began watching it because he felt disgusted with himself.

The Crown and defence lawyers will give their closing addresses this morning before Judge Kevin Phillips sums up the case and the jury retires to consider its verdict.

- © Fairfax NZ News