Date rape charge against artist dismissed

Napier sculptor and artist Paratene Matchitt today walked free from the High Court in Napier after a judge dismissed charges over the alleged date-rape of a woman last year. Judge Forrest Miller discharged the 72-year-old after hearing a short pre-trial application by defence counsel Adam Couchman that there was insufficient evidence for the case to go to trial. Matchitt had faced one charge of rape, one of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and one of indecent assault relating to incidents alleged to have happened in a 29-year-old woman's home after they dined together in a Napier restaurant on October 14 last year. It was alleged Matchitt followed the woman home, entered her house uninvited, and had sex with her without her consent after she passed-out, and that she was unaware of what had happened until she awoke the next morning.

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