An alleged offender forced his way into a woman's home where he raped her three times during the night while her young children were present, a court has heard. 

Jason Andre Werahika Hikaka, 52, appeared before Judge Stephanie Edwards in the Whanganui District Court today facing three charges of rape and one each of breaching a protection order, impedes breathing and wounding with reckless disregard. 

He pleaded guilty to breaching a protection order and not guilty to the remaining five as his trial, before a jury of eight men and four women, got under way. 

Crown prosecutor Harry Mallalieu told the jury Hikaka and the victim were known to each other before he forced his way into her Whanganui home in November 2019 and ignored her requests to leave. 

Mallalieu said the woman, who had previously taken out a protection order against Hikaka, and her children had been suffering from a stomach bug and she was sleeping on a mattress in the lounge. 

During the night the woman awoke to find Hikaka raping her from behind and, despite her pleas to stop and telling him she didn't want to have sex, he carried on. 

At one stage Hikaka squeezed the woman's throat with his hand so she couldn't breathe. 

After he finished, Hikaka told his victim she should kill herself. 

The woman was later woken again by Hikaka raping her from behind before he climbed on top of her and continued while sucking on her neck, which left a bruise, Mallalieu said. 

She told Hikaka to stop and asked him to leave but he didn't. 

Eventually Hikaka left the address and was later arrested at his home in Foxton. 

Mallalieu said when the woman reported the offending to police she also detailed being hit across the face with a glass by Hikaka in 2016, but she never sought medical attention. 

Defence lawyer Debbie Goodlet said Hikaka had admitted breaching the protection order because he had engaged in psychological abuse when he forced his way into the victim's home. 

"There was one hell of a verbal argument, he said some pretty nasty things to her and he shouldn't have," Goodlet told the jury. 

Hikaka acknowledged he had sex with the woman during the night but claimed it was consensual and denied putting his hands around her throat. 

Goodlet said Hikaka did not smash a glass in the woman's face causing an injury years earlier. 

The trial is set down for four days. 

- by Leighton Keith, Open Justice