Sex experiences: ‘I felt ripped off’

The lonely life of a long-distance truck driver led a man to seek company and sex from women he saw on Tinder, a Wellington jury has heard.

The man, 52, whose name was suppressed, pleaded not guilty to charges relating to six females then aged 15 to 21, who said they agreed to sex acts for money and he did not pay.

Giving evidence in the Wellington District Court yesterday, he said he started out really honest and paid up-front but people would leave without doing anything.

‘‘I felt I was getting ripped off.’’

So he delayed online banking payments so he could cancel them.

In early 2018, he cancelled a payment to two gay women in Christchurch. The women ‘‘made out’’ together before he had sex with one of them. He was expecting a ‘‘full lesbian experience’’ and said: ‘‘Is that it?’’ ‘‘Obviously I felt ripped off.’’

Yesterday, Judge Ian Mill discharged the man on one of the 12 charges. Dealing with a female under 18 for sexual exploitation was a charge more appropriate to circumstances such as ‘‘pimping’’, the judge said.

Other charges related to three teenagers in Petone in June 2018. Two were 15 and one was 16 but they pretended to be older.

One changed her mind, which he said was fair enough, but he had sex with the other two on the bed in his truck.

He cancelled the $4000 payment because it was not ‘‘enjoyable’’ and one did not do anything. He thought it was blackmail when one said he had to pay or they would tell police he had raped underage girls.

He responded it was a business arrangement and he had not been satisfied.

In Lower Hutt in August 2018, he was to pay a female $1500. He was annoyed she was in a hurry to go, he said.

He was charged with rape for allegedly not wearing a condom which was a condition of her consent to sex. He said he put one on part-way through and only took it off after he finished.

He thought she spoke about being at school and living with her parents in an attempt to ‘‘up the price’’. She was 17.

He said he thought the females were all 18 because they had to be 18 to be on Tinder. Under cross-examination, he agreed he put his age as 45 when he was 48, so he knew other people could also lie about their age.

He said he was lonely spending so much time away from his wife.

Ina Stuff article he read about ‘‘sugar daddies’’, older men paying younger women for company and sex.

He contacted females he saw on Tinder and asked if they were interested in having a sugar daddy.

The man was to continue giving evidence today.