A Canberra office worker accused of striking, pinning down and raping a woman only stopped the assault when a cat interrupted because he "f...ing hates cats", a prosecutor has said.
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The judge-alone trial of Ropati Dominic Finau started in the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday after he pleaded not guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of rape.
Prosecutor Patrick Dixon told the court Mr Finau, who is commonly referred to as "Dom", ran into his alleged victim on a night out in Canberra city in November 2018.
The young woman broke off from her friendship group, having recognised Mr Finau as a former colleague, and ended up bar-hopping with him for a period of time.
She told police in March 2019 the pair had kissed throughout the November night, but she indicated to Mr Finau she was only out to have fun and dance.
At the end of the night, when she said Mr Finau seemed very drunk, he kept urging her to come with him back to his house, but she settled on sharing a cab.
The young woman told police she did so with the intention that the taxi would take her to her apartment and continue on to drop Mr Finau home. But, she said when they arrived at her apartment, Mr Finau paid the driver and told him he'd order another cab.
Mr Finau allegedly insisted on going up to the woman's apartment because he felt sick, needed a glass of water and to use the bathroom. It's on a sofa bed in the apartment that police allege Mr Finau took his pants off unsolicited and tried to have sex with the woman as she attempted to push him off.
"He used his feet and body to hold the complainant down," Mr Dixon said.
The woman told police Mr Finau became very angry when she hit him on the shoulder in one attempt to get him off, and he struck her in the head in response.
The court heard the woman took photos of herself after the alleged incident and had a lump on the side of her heard.
Mr Dixon said Mr Finau ultimately raped the woman. He said Mr Finau only stopped the assault when the woman's cat jumped on the bed and Mr Finau said "cats are terrifying", "yuck" and "I f...ing hate cats".
Mr Dixon said the case didn't concern mistaken consent or the issue of intoxication; rather, the woman and Mr Finau had completely different versions of events.
Mr Finau's defence barrister, Duncan Berents, said his client categorically denied striking the woman and digitally raping her. He said penial sex between Mr Finau and the woman was consensual.
The judge-alone trial continues.