A complex story of an alleged rape and sexual violation by a family friend of an underage girl has played out in the Ashburton District Court this week.

A former Ashburton man, who was acquitted on two charges of sexual misconduct with a 12-year-old girl in 2008, has defended a new charge of rape and six charges of sexual violation with six alternative charges of unlawful sexual connection with a girl under 16.

The alleged victim was 15 at the time she alleges Christopher David Swaney, a family friend and "father figure", forced her to have oral sex and then raped her at his home while she visiting during the school holidays.

The following two nights she alleges she was was sexually violated by Swaney again.

While giving evidence at Swaney's trial before Judge Raoul Neave, she said was too scared to say or do anything during or after the alleged sexual assault.

"I felt like if I didn't just do it he would do something to me," she said under cross examination by Swaney's lawyer Christopher Lange.

She also said Swaney had regularly touched her inappropriately since a young age - almost every time the two families socialised, from the time she was eight or nine.

In her interview with police, played in court, she said, "I can’t remember exactly what he did, but I know he did something."

She spoke of flashbacks of these events and how real they seemed.

Swaney, 36, has denied the alleged sexual misconduct since his first police interview on February 3, 2022.

In a police interview played in court he said he treated the alleged victim "like my own daughter" and said any visits to his home had been at her request.

The court was told the Swaney family was a fun family to be around and the two families would socialise regularly from the time the families became friends in about 2012.

When the Swaneys left Ashburton and moved to another part of Canterbury, the families kept in touch and the alleged victim and her brother used to visit them over the holidays.

This largely stopped when Swaney and his wife separated in November 2019. However, the complainant would sometimes still go down to see the children.

In July 2021, her grandparents took her down to Swaney's work in Geraldine to drop her off.

The various testimonies had her at Swaney's house for a period of four days to up to two weeks in the winter holidays.

Swaney said she was at his home for about four days and his children were there the whole time. He'd taken the week off work to spend time with his children.

But the alleged victim said she was there for most of the holidays and was initially alone with Swaney before the children arrived.

She said the sexual misconduct stopped when the children came home.

Evidence from Swaney's ex-wife placed the children with him over the period the alleged victim was there.

While evidence from two of Swaney's colleagues, who came to his home after work for a few whiskeys, said the complainant and Swaney were the only two people seen at the home while they were there.

The complainant's boyfriend at the time of the alleged incident said she did not want to leave Swaney's home when he arrived with her parents to pick her up.

She barely interacted with him on the car ride home.

He said he could tell instinctively that something had happened.

Back home, in the bedroom he shared with her at her parent's home, she initially denied anything happened, then "gave in" and admitted that something happened.

She told him she didn't want sex but had been talked into it.

He said she did not use the word rape.

Earlier in their relationship, she had confided to her boyfriend that she had had sex with Swaney before - more than once.

Lange questioned inconsistencies in her evidence and made a point of the fact that she did not contact her parents or anyone else after the alleged sexual misconduct or complain of any pain in her police interview.

During the trial, it emerged that Swaney had faced earlier charges of sexual misconduct with a 12-year-old girl from an alleged incident in 2008. Swaney was found not guilty.

The woman from the 2008 incident, along with two other women who knew Swaney as young teens, gave evidence of their interactions with Swaney. For two of these women this included kissing and inappropriate touching.

The third blocked Swaney on social media after the relationship she had with someone she viewed as "an uncle" started to become awkward.

Crown prosecutor Andrew McRae said their evidence showed Swaney had a sexual interest in young pre-teen and teenage girls between 12 to 16 who become infatuated with him, and showed "inappropriate sexual grooming" that escalated from kissing to inappropriate touching.

Swaney declined to give evidence or call any witnesses.

Judge Neave said the inconsistencies in the evidence would make it difficult to uphold a rape charge.

He remanded Swaney on bail to a nominal date of July 15 while he considered his decision.

By Sharon Davis