Family of alleged rape victim take stand in Gympie trial

It is alleged a Rainbow Beach man raped a woman twice after meeting her and her boyfriend at the Rainbow Beach Hotel in 2016

Gympie District Court

EDITOR'S NOTE: A jury returned a not guilty verdict on this matter.

JURORS yesterday heard from key witnesses, including the complainant's husband, mother and father, as the trial of a Gympie region man accused of rape continued.

Several witnesses took the stand at Gympie District Court on the second day of the trial yesterday to give evidence into the events leading up to the alleged rape of a woman at Rainbow Beach in 2016.

Rainbow Beach man Ngtihe Lewis Pearce, 31, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault.

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He sat in the press gallery yesterday and showed no emotion as the witnesses took the stand. His mother also attended the trial, sitting in the public gallery.

It is alleged that Mr Pearce raped a woman after meeting her and her boyfriend, now husband, at the Rainbow Beach Hotel in early August, 2016.

The couple and Mr Pearce allegedly met a group of tradies at the hotel on the same night for a work party, and were all invited back to their accommodation for more drinks after the pub closed.

The court heard from several witnesses yesterday, including three of the tradesmen and the owner of the construction company they worked for, who were all at the pub that night.

Each of these witnesses relayed similar versions of what happened that night; that they had been fishing during the day, went back to their accommodation, and then went to the Rainbow Beach Hotel later at night until it closed.

Each witness said they met three people at the pub, a man and a couple, who they invited back to their accommodation when the pub closed.

The three tradies said that after a short while they asked the complainant, her partner and the defendant to leave, at which point the defendant allegedly invited the couple back to his house.

The complainant's husband then took to the witness stand, and identified Mr Pearce as the man they had met that night, and said he and his partner were both "drunk" by the time they were at the tradies' house.

He said that after being asked to leave the tradies' accommodation, they walked to Mr Pearce's house where he gave them a drink and pulled out a bed for them downstairs.

The man said he woke up the next morning before his girlfriend, who was beside him.

He said when they returned home from their trip, his girlfriend, and now wife, told him she had been raped by Mr Pearce during the night.

The court also heard from the complainant's mother, who said her daughter had told her about the alleged offences a week after she returned from her trip to Rainbow Beach.

She said her daughter came to her "distressed and sobbing" and told her she was raped after meeting a man at a pub and going back to his place with her partner.

The complainant's mother said her daughter told her the man had come downstairs after they were asleep, picked her up and took her somewhere, and that she couldn't move her body.

She said her daughter told her she said "no, no, no" but the man did not stop, and that the next morning she felt "extremely sick" and was vomiting and embarrassed.

The complainant's father also told the court his daughter had told him she was raped while at Rainbow Beach, while visiting his house in December of that year, and he told her to go to the police.

The trial will continue in Gympie District Court today.

Originally published as Family of alleged rape victim take stand in Gympie trial