Rugby union player’s chilling words before allegedly raping a teenage girl – only stopping when her cat walked in because he found it ‘gross’
- Queanbeyan Whites rugby player appears in court accused of sickening rape
- The powerfully-built athlete allegedly over-powered a slender 18-year-old teen
- Ropati Dominic ‘Dom’ Finau pleaded not guilty in the ACT Supreme Court trial
A rugby union player who is accused of the rape of an 18-year-old teenager allegedly only stopped when her cat walked into the room – because he found it ‘gross’.
Ropati Dominic ‘Dom’ Finau pleaded not guilty to a litany of sex charges that allegedly occurred on November 24 2018, when he appeared in the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The court heard the Queanbeyan Whites’ player not only ignored the 18-year-old’s pleas to stop, but offered her chilling words before the alleged rape.
Queanbeyan Whites’ rugby union player Ropati Dominic ‘Dom’ Finau is pictured leaving the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday after pleading not guilty to sex crimes
Finau met his alleged victim at Mooseheads nightclub in the inner-city Canberra suburb of Civic and repeatedly made unwanted sexual advances, the court heard.
The alleged victim said Finau became increasingly drunk as the evening went on and told her ‘I don’t want to go home alone’.
In the early hours of the morning the two shared a taxi, however Finau followed his alleged victim into her home instead of continuing on, The Daily Telegraph reported.
According to the alleged victim, Finau was so drunk he was ‘awake but not awake’.
The court heard the teenager begged Finau to stop his attack and pleaded with him to put his pants back on.
‘I don’t want this to happen … this is not good, stop it,’ she said.
But Finau allegedly over-powered her and said the chilling words: ‘I’m hard, I want this, I’m here.’
The court heard the alleged victim then began hitting the rugby player in a desperate attempt to get Finau to stop but due to his strength and size she was unsuccessful.
The judge-alone rape trial before Chief Justice Helen Murrell in the ACT Supreme Court (pictured) is yet to be resolved
The alleged attack only stopped when the teenager’s cat entered the room.
‘I f**king hate cats, yuck, cats are terrifying,’ Finau is alleged to have said.
Photos of the alleged victim’s bruised and swollen face were shown to the court.
The teenager said she took the images in the hours following the alleged rape because: ‘I could feel as if it was growing and swelling.’
Finau’s barrister, Duncan Berents, claims the teenager consented to the sexual encounter and that both parties made conflicting accounts to the police.
A decision in the judge-alone trial before Chief Justice Helen Murrell is yet to be reached.