NEW ZEALAND – A Zimbabwean man, John Hope Muchirahondo, appeared before the High Court in New Zealand facing a shocking 30 charges of rape and sexual assault involving 15 different women between 2009 and 2021.
The case is playing out at the High Court in Christchurch, the second largest city by population size in New Zealand.
According to a report by the New Zealand Herald, Muchirahondo is facing “22 charges of sexual violation by rape, nine of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and one of not providing access to a cellphone.”
In a police interview played in court, one of the victims narrated how she met Muchirahondo at a bar during a night out drinking in central Christchurch in 2020.
After several drinks with him and others she says she felt “completely inebriated” and suspects he had given her something else to drink that effectively drugged her.
“I remember saying to him I need to go home and he said you’re too drunk to go home, he goes ‘we’ll go to my place’,” she said.
“I remember looking up at him and wondering what was happening and why we were having sex.”
“I knew something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t remember exactly what had happened. I was still under the influence of whatever I had been given the night before,” she said.
Muchirahondo is facing trial for eight weeks before Justice Lisa Preston and a 12-person jury.
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