Sisituutuumata Fulivai, a 46-year-old from Lyneham, is facing a Supreme Court trial. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to alleged sexual assault and may be distressing to some readers.
The young woman who was allegedly trapped inside a man’s home for days while he sexually assaulted and repeatedly beat her said the whole experience left her feeling “broken”.
Sisituutuumata Fulivai, 46, pleaded not guilty to 20 charges when his jury trial began in the ACT Supreme Court this week.
Jurors heard he allegedly held a woman captive at his home in Lyneham for two days while he raped and repeatedly assaulted her before she was able to fight her way out and fled, naked, onto the street.
The woman, aged in her mid-20s, was heard speaking about how she thought she was going to die in the house when a recording of the interview she made with police in the days after her alleged escape was played to the jurors on Wednesday (18 February).
“He convinced me … that he was going to kill me,” she claimed.
She said she was naked on the bed when Mr Fulivai was allegedly pacing the bedroom, talking to himself and making comments like how they would end up on the front page of the newspaper together and how he accepted he was going back to prison.
A police officer asked how she felt when he was making these alleged comments.
“Petrified. I was so scared,” she replied.
The woman claimed Mr Fulivai injected himself with the drug ‘ice’ in front of her and spoke in third person, calling himself “Matty” and referring to someone called “Z”.
For instance, she said he would allegedly make comments to her like, “Z decided you must pay for your disrespect”, and, “It’s Z’s decision that I must die”.
“It was like a movie I’ve watched before,” she said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
He also allegedly threatened her family.
“‘I’ll go kill your Mum, then I’ll go to [a town in NSW] and kill your sisters’,” she alleged he told her.
The woman said she was more focused on escaping than asking for food or drinks.
“My mouth was so dry I could barely even talk,” she said.
She estimated she asked to leave the house more than 100 times.
“It was nearly every word that came out of my mouth. ‘Let me go, I promise I won’t tell anyone’,” she said.
Jurors had already heard how Mr Fulivai is accused of twice choking the woman until she passed out. After the second time, she allegedly woke up to him having sex with her.
It is alleged he punched her unconscious when she started screaming.
In the interview, the woman said he was asleep when she woke up after this alleged rape, so she tried to sneak out. But he woke up, told her he was sorry and to come back to bed.
She said as she was petrified, she returned. A police officer asked what she thought would happen if she didn’t go back.
“I don’t know. I didn’t want to find out,” she replied.
Towards the end of the interview, a police officer asked how the whole alleged experience made her feel.
“Broken … I don’t even feel like myself,” the woman replied.
“At the same time, I feel like there’s something wrong with me because I’m not processing what happened.
“I’m scared to find out how I’m going to be when it actually does hit me.”
The police officer concluded the interview by telling the woman she was sorry for what allegedly happened to her and that she was “incredibly brave”.
Under questioning from prosecutor Marina Lucero in the courtroom, the woman admitted she used the drugs ‘ice’ and ‘G’ in the days before the allegations.
But she said neither affected her memory, and she could still remember what happened.
Jurors previously heard the woman had only recently met Mr Fulivai through a mutual friend and they had consensual sex in the days before the allegations.
Mr Fulivai’s charges include 11 counts of assault, four counts of choking, three counts of making a threat to kill, as well as single counts of sexual intercourse without consent and unlawful confinement.
The trial continues before Justice Belinda Baker.
If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT on 02 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call triple zero.
If you have been affected by sexual violence, or someone you know has, you can report it to police by attending a police station or phoning 131 444.
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