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Jordan Tegus, 27, is on trial in the Wellington District Court. Photo: Catherine Hutton/NZME
Warning: This story contains allegations of sexual offending.
The lawyer for a man facing a raft of sexual offences against a young woman says his client was "a bit of a dickhead" and could have treated her better.
But Tony Bamford told a jury in the Wellington District Court that did not make Jordan Tegus guilty.
Tegus, 27, denies 17 charges, including rape, sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, indecent assault and making an intimate visual recording.
The Crown, which has now closed its case, alleges that Tegus physically and sexually assaulted the young woman.
Giving evidence in his own defence, as Bamford read out the particulars of each charge, Tegus categorically denied ever sexually assaulting or being violent towards the woman, appearing to make few, if any, concessions.
He insisted marks on her neck were hickies because she'd wanted him to "leave his mark" and not, as the court heard earlier, a purple bruise from him allegedly putting his hand on her throat.
He told the court he'd never made a visual recording without the woman's knowledge, despite the jury earlier being shown two short graphic videos of the two involved in sex acts.
In one, the woman appears to have her eyes closed, later telling police she believed she was asleep at the time. She was adamant she'd never agreed to being filmed on either occasion.
But Tegus told the jury he filmed more than half of their sexual encounters, which they would watch later.
"She always knew I was recording."
He said that, when it came to sex, they respected each other's boundaries.
But he agreed with Bamford that the sex could also be rough. "Oh yeah, we were pretty sexual," he said, explaining that they could have sex up to three times a day.
He denied forcing her to have oral sex or physically assaulting her, by pushing her off a bed, or picking her up and dropping her. The physical injuries she suffered were likely caused at work, he told the jury.
But the court also heard about the good times. Under cross-examination by Tegus' other lawyer, Gretel Fairbrother, the court heard that photos on their social media accounts showed them at the beach, movies, shopping and eating.
Sex was always consensual, court told
Under cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Claire Hislop, Tegus continued to insist that he was never violent towards the woman, telling the court the sex between them was consensual, even suggesting the woman would sometimes play the dominant role.
"All the time we had anal sex, any sex, it was consensual," he said.
He reiterated that the marks on her throat were hickies, or "love marks", but said she'd sent him the photo wanting his impressions, not because he'd asked for it.
He told the court that, on occasion, he'd use the passwords she'd given him to access her Instagram accounts, while at other times he'd block her from his account because he was feeling jealous.
He denied ever dropping her, telling the court the only times he'd picked her up were to help her or to give her a piggyback if she was too tired to walk.
And despite his claims that there were several sex videos, the court heard that searches of Tegus' phone revealed only a couple.
"You just did what you wanted and didn't care about what she thought," Hislop suggested to Tegus at one point.
"No, I cared about what she thought," he responded.
Tegus was also questioned about the nearly two years of contact between the two after his arrest.
When Hislop suggested to him that he'd maintained contact to try to get the woman to withdraw the charges, he denied that was the case.
"She'd lied, I've never raped her, I'm not that kind of person," Tegus responded.
Previous convictions
Before the Crown closed its case, it was revealed that Tegus has 10 previous convictions, including for assault and assault with a weapon, as well as charges of doing a threatening act, threatening to kill and breaching a protection order.
The jury was also given a brief description of each charge and heard that Tegus' temper could be triggered by something as small as a broken vape.
After these were read out, Judge Noel Sainsbury told the jury that Tegus' criminal history did not automatically mean he was guilty of the current charges. It was for them to assess whether they were relevant to the current case.
The jury was hearing closing addresses from counsel before Judge Sainsbury sums up the case to the jury tomorrow morning.
This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.
