WARNING: This story contains content that may be upsetting to some people

A Rotorua District Court jury has taken less than an hour to find a Kiwi-born professional British rugby player not guilty of raping a woman in Rotorua 31 years ago.

Chris Budgen, 49, stood in the dock on Thursday, looked to the roof and let out a big sigh when the jury forewoman said the jury had unanimously found him not guilty.

He had been on trial since Monday before six women and six men.

The Rotorua Daily Post can now reveal Budgen played rugby in England for Exeter Chiefs and Northampton Saints in the Aviva Premiership - the top division of the English rugby union system.

His position of choice was a prop, and he juggled his professional rugby career with being an active soldier, working his way up to being a lance corporal in the Royal Welsh Regiment, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Chris Budgen of Exeter Chiefs in action during an Aviva Premiership match in 2011. Photo / Getty Images

It was the Crown’s case that 18-year-old Budgen approached the woman from behind on Amohau St just past Joe’s Diner, put his hand over her mouth and dragged her down an alleyway. It was there the Crown said he raped her against a concrete wall.

But Budgen maintained he had spent a night out drinking after playing for the U19 Northern team against U19 Central as a curtain-raiser for an NPC match on September 14, 1991. He had met a woman at Fentons Tavern, and they agreed to go back to his room at the Spa Lodge, where they had a one-night stand.

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Sometime after 4am, the woman left his room.

Budgen was charged as a result of advances in DNA science.

ESR forensic experts contacted police in October 2012 to advise they could now get a DNA profile from semen found on a black teddy the woman had been wearing.

It took several years, but detectives traced the DNA to Budgen’s family. Budgen was found living in Wales, and voluntarily gave a DNA sample in 2015. He was charged in 2018 after his sample matched.

The court heard he had spent his career working for the British military but moved back to New Zealand in 2020 for the court case, and had been driving trucks in New Plymouth.

Budgen, originally from Ngāruawāhia, told the Rotorua Daily Post immediately after today’s verdicts it was difficult for him to speak.

“My emotions are a bit high at the moment.”

He thanked his legal team, including trial lawyer Sam Wimsett, for getting the result.

Earlier in the day, the jury heard closing arguments from Crown prosecutor Anna McConachy, who said the complainant had no motive to lie, was credible and had waited 31 years for justice.

She said everyone who had come into contact with the complainant since her ordeal had given similar evidence that she was distressed, emotional and crying.

When she got home, she rang Rape Crisis, rang the police, woke her flatmate in a distressed state and rang the police again. She then was interviewed by police, took officers to the scene and underwent an extensive physical examination, all before 11am.

McConachy said if the jury believed the woman was lying, it meant she was a “phenomenal actress who put on a show to everyone she saw that morning”.

But Wimsett successfully convinced the jury there was a “big hole” in the woman’s timeline from when she said the left Fenton’s Tavern at 2.20am, and when she was picked up by police officer Eric Grace two hours later and driven home.

He said the woman had initially said she was raped by a stranger in the alleyway, left and tried to get a taxi home, but changed her story in evidence, saying she must have walked around in a shocked state afterwards - he claimed this was because she knew there was a problem with her timeline.

Wimsett said it would have been a “big effort” for Budgen to drag the woman 50 metres down an alleyway, despite him being larger and physically fit.

He said there were no scuff marks on her shoes or injuries to her ankles and legs, and told the jury that raping a woman against a concrete wall was logistically difficult as he would need to hold her up, hold his hand across her mouth and pull her teddy undergarment to one side.

He said Briscoe’s evidence the woman had small pinpoint blood marks on her buttocks and the Crown’s conclusion that was caused by movement up against a concrete wall needed to be considered carefully, because there was no damage to the woman’s teddy or black dress.

Wimsett said the fact Budgen couldn’t remember who he was sharing a room with at the Spa Lodge should not be given added weight because there was confusion over who was in the team when looking at the team photo and the names in the game programme.

He also noted police only contacted some of the Waikato players - not all players - who did not know Budgen’s movements the night after the game.

- Kelly Makiha, RDP

SEXUAL HARM

Where to get help:
If it's an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
If you've ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone, contact Safe to Talk confidentially, any time 24/7:
• Call 0800 044 334
• Text 4334
• Email [email protected]
• For more info or to web chat visit safetotalk.nz
Alternatively contact your local police station - click here for a list.
If you have been sexually assaulted, remember it's not your fault.