Former international rugby player ‘painted’ alleged rape victim as ‘sexual aggressor’

Two men accused of raping a woman at a Canberra motel “painted a picture” of the alleged victim as the “sexual aggressor”, a jury has heard.

“I wasn’t very interested in having sex with her but she was urging me,” Paula Fala Kata, 35, said through an interpreter on Friday.

“She was still too annoying to me and I knew if I didn’t have sex with her she will keep urging me, annoying me.”

The alleged offender is accused of raping the woman at Lyneham Motor Inn in the early hours of April 3, 2022, with co-accused Seti Palei Moala, 28.

Kata, the court heard on Monday, previously played rugby union for Tonga.

Kata has denied charges of sexual intercourse without consent in company and sexual intercourse without consent.

Moala has pleaded not guilty to sexual intercourse without consent in company, choking, and two counts of sexual intercourse without consent.

ACT Supreme Court jurors heard it was agreed Kata and the woman met and “hooked up” at Fiction nightclub in Civic before returning to the motel and having consensual sex.

During her closing address on Monday, prosecutor Melanie O’Connell said nightclub CCTV footage showed “clear mutual interest” between Kata and the alleged victim.

The offender previously told the court he only approached the woman because she was “making eyes” at him and gesturing for him to speak to her.

“You might think he was trying to downplay his interest in the complainant,” Ms O’Connell said.

“He painted a picture that the complainant was the sexual aggressor.”

During his cross-examination, Kata said he was not making up his version of events because he had “made an oath on the bible to tell the truth”.

In the account presented by Moala, the alleged victim “was the sexual aggressor who made eyes [at h