Woman tells of sex encounter with New Zealand legislator

Jun 4, 2009, 22:18 GMT

Wellington - A Korean businesswoman who filed a complaint with police about disgraced New Zealand government minister Richard Worth says she had a 'sexual encounter' with him at a hotel, a newspaper reported on Friday.

The woman, who lives in Auckland, says he invited her to an official function he hosted in Parliament in Wellington in March and then took her to a hotel room 'where a sexual encounter took place,' the New Zealand Herald reported.

Worth, who resigned as minister of internal affairs on Wednesday hours before police confirmed they were investigating the woman's complaint, insists he has committed no offence.

'There has been a rush to judgment, on the basis of rumour and speculation, which has been damaging to my political career and hurtful for my family and friends,' he said, in a statement released Thursday by a public relations company.

The Herald said its reporter met the businesswoman, who is in her 40s and has New Zealand citizenship, on Thursday, but she was too distressed to discuss the incident. The report was based on an account of it relayed to the reporter by a friend who helped the woman go to the police about two weeks ago.

Parliament was told on Thursday that another woman, a married ethnic Indian with two children, had received a series of 'vulgar and sexually explicit' telephone calls from Worth, who offered her a job in his office.

In a statement read by Phil Goff, leader of the opposition Labour Party, that woman said that after meeting Worth for the first time in November, he had sent her about 40 text messages, some ending with 'xxx' and made more than 60 telephone calls offering her jobs.

'Several of the phone calls made by Dr Worth to me were vulgar, sexually explicit, and I believe were made when he was drunk,' she said. 'On one occasion, he asked me if I prayed for something to happen to my husband so we could be together.'

Goff revealed that he told Prime Minister John Key a month ago about the woman's experiences with the minister after she had complained to him.

Goff said Key should have acted sooner but the Prime Minister said Worth categorically denied the accusations when they were put to him and said he would sign an affidavit to that effect.

Key told Radio New Zealand Friday that he was prepared to meet the woman face-to-face to hear her story, which if confirmed could lead to Worth being expelled from the ruling National Party.