A man says he was swindled out of $400 through a crude honey trap at a Dunedin boarding house.
Olivia Louise Fusco (21) pleaded not guilty to blackmail and indecent assault at the outset of her Dunedin District Court trial yesterday.
The defendant told the jury despite being in the dock, she was the victim and had been fondled by the complainant in the kitchen of the Maryhill boarding house where they lived.
Fusco claimed her boyfriend, 29-year-old Nicholas Scott Kerr - who pleaded guilty to blackmail in November - was solely responsible for the extortion attempt.
The complainant told the court yesterday he had finished work and gone home to the Mitchell Ave residence just after midnight on April 28 to have dinner.
Fusco, he said, came into the communal kitchen to make dinner and he noticed she was wearing a blue nightgown which opened to reveal her naked underneath as she prepared food.
She seemed intoxicated, the man said.
Later, the complainant said, Fusco knocked on his door and led him back to the kitchen where she sat on a counter and propositioned him twice before revealing her thigh.
``I thought that she was drunk ... This is not the right thing to do,'' the man said.
As Fusco left the room, he said, her hand brushed his groin.
The court heard Kerr then knocked on the complainant's door and the three of them sat and discussed matters.
Kerr threatened he would involve the police and his partner would say the man sexually assaulted her, but Fusco said she was not part of the discussion.
Kerr claimed he had a video of what had happened in the kitchen and the complainant later that day paid him $400
However, he had photographed the serial numbers of the eight $50 notes and went to police.
He told them his version of events and officers found some of the cash in Kerr's wallet.
Defence counsel Len Andersen said his client had no previous convictions and had effectively been abused twice in one night: ``firstly by [the complainant] and secondly by her ex-boyfriend who tried to take advantage of what happened for commercial gain''.
Fusco opted to give evidence yesterday.
She said her fellow boarding-house dweller asked her more than a dozen times to show him what she was wearing under her robe while they were cooking.
``I kept telling him `no','' Fusco said.
``[He] came up behind me ... started putting his hand around my private areas and put his other hand over the top underneath my top and my bra.''
When she told Kerr, she said he confronted the man in her absence
``He mentioned that he'd sorted it out and he'd been offered money ... I told him I wasn't happy about it because I'd wanted to go to the police,'' Fusco said.
The jury were shown Facebook messages exchanged between the defendant and the complainant but she said her ex-boyfriend had sent them from her account.
She maintained her stance when Crown prosecutor Catherine Ure pointed out the messages referred to Kerr in the third person.
``No trouble is needed here. Nick was going to beat you up when he caught you but I believe in giving people chances and so does he,'' one said.
Mr Andersen pointed out to the jury that the messages appeared to show the complainant's extreme concern over an alleged video of the kitchen incident.
``If what you said was true wouldn't the video exonerate you?'' he asked.
The man eventually accepted he had gone to the police only after he had been told by Kerr the supposed video had been deleted.
The trial, before Judge Michael Crosbie and a jury of six men and six women, is expected to conclude today.
