The basement of a Dundas St student flat, where it is alleged a woman was raped during a party last year, was known among those familiar with it as "the rape pit", a Dunedin court heard on the second day of the accused's jury trial yesterday.
David Soul, a tenant of the flat where the party was held on May 9, said a sign with the nickname on it was taken off the basement door when he and his flatmates moved in at the beginning of 2009.
However, the flatmates "had joked about it" and others who came to their flat were also aware of the nickname, including the 20-year-old student who is accused of the crime.
The man, who has interim name suppression, faces two counts of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and one of sexual violation by rape.
Mr Soul's evidence was part of the Crown's case, which finished yesterday on the second day of the trial in the Dunedin District Court.
Evidence was also heard from friends of the alleged victim, residents of the flat, a physiotherapist, forensic scientists and police officers.
Witnesses told Crown counsel Robin Bates and Craig Power that the victim had chatted to the man at the party.
About midnight, the woman's friends could not find her as they were leaving the party.
They were not initially concerned, until one received a text from her that said "Help me, I don't know where I am."
She was found outside the flat downstairs, in a "hysterical" state.
"She was sobbing uncontrollably and shaking.
"We couldn't make any sense of what she was saying," a close friend of the woman told the court.
She said the woman had "dust" on the back of her dress and her stockings were ripped in an "unusual place" around the inner thigh area.
Earlier, a physiotherapist gave evidence that he had treated the woman in the weeks following the alleged incident for soft-tissue injuries to her spine.
From her pain, it appeared she had been subject to a whiplash-type injury, similar to blunt-force trauma resulting from a sporting injury or falling down steps, he said.
In evidence read out to the court, two forensic scientists said there was no evidence of the accused's DNA on clothing or swabs taken from the woman, but counsel agreed there were various situations in which that was possible, including if a condom was used.
Police officers who interviewed the accused said he told them he followed the woman in to the basement, where she told him she was a sex addict and left in tears.
He did not know why she was upset, officers said.
The trial will continue this afternoon, with the defence case.
