SINGAPORE - An aircraft technician accused of raping a teenager claimed yesterday that she had offered him sex for $200 but later cried rape because he paid her $50 after the act.
Sivakumar Selvarajah, 41, also denied he was posing as a cop when he allegedly committed the crime in his car in 2010.
He said the girl, who was then 16, got into his car of her own volition and had consensual sex with him.
But the prosecution tore at his testimony. "It is a story that you have concocted to explain how she got into your car that day," said Deputy Public Prosecutor S. Sellakumaran.
One afternoon in July 2010, Sivakumar approached a young couple making love in a car at a Woodlands multi-storey carpark.
The prosecution's case is that he posed as a police officer and threatened to charge them with engaging in sexual activity and littering, as the boyfriend had thrown out a condom.
He allegedly gave them two options: go with him to a police station or have the boyfriend leave while he drove the girl home. While driving her home, he allegedly pressured her into having sex with him in the back seat of his sports utility vehicle along Tampines Industrial Avenue 4.
Yesterday, Sivakumar gave his account of events. He said he had stopped his car at the carpark after spotting two teenage boys behaving suspiciously. He confronted them when he saw them littering.
He then approached the car with the girl and her boyfriend because he saw something being thrown out of the rear window.
He told the boyfriend to step out of the car to ask him about the litter. He also asked the couple for their identity cards and where they lived.
When he caught the girl out for lying about where she lived, he became concerned whether her parents knew of her whereabouts, he said.
The girl kept mum when he asked for her parents' phone numbers. But she volunteered to let him drive her home, and the boyfriend agreed to it, he told the court. During the journey, he accepted her offer to have sex with him for $200, he claimed. He said she chose the spot and directed him there.
But he stopped having sex with her after a while because he felt uncomfortable as the environment was too "open". He handed her $50 as he did not have enough cash, he claimed. This made her unhappy, he said.
When the DPP asked how he went from being concerned about her welfare to agreeing to have sex with her, Sivakumar replied that he knew it was wrong but could not resist as she had asked in a "seductive" way.
He denied that he had gone to the carpark posing as a law enforcement officer to terrorise unsuspecting victims. He also disagreed with the DPP's statement that he knew he had "hit the jackpot" when he found the couple, as he had caught them doing something they were ashamed of.
The trial has been adjourned for closing submissions. A verdict is expected on Aug 7.