Man who had sexual relations with 13 year-old says her body was ‘developed’
Wednesday, 29 January 2025
A man who had sex with a 13-year-old girl says he thought she was 16.
Luca Fairgray is on trial at the Auckland District Court.
The Crown’s case is that the girl told Fairgray she was 13 before they began a sexual relationship. Fairgray’s lawyers say the girl told him she was 16.
Warning the below story discusses sexual content.
A man who had a sexual relationship with a 13 year-old girl has told a Court that she “had the body of a 16 year-old”.
Luca Benedict Kercher Fairgray has denied three charges of sexual connection with a young person under 16 and is on trial at the Auckland District Court.
He has pleaded guilty to a charge of supplying cannabis to the girl.
The Crown’s case is that the girl told Fairgray she was 13 before they began a sexual relationship. Fairgray’s lawyers say the girl told their client she was 16.
Now aged 22, Fairgray is giving evidence in his own defence and told the Court that he met the girl online.
They talked of their shared neuro divergence.
Fairgray said the girl told him she was 16 years-old. When asked by his lawyer, Susan Gray how old she looked, Fairgray said she appeared to be around 17 years-old.
He said she also told him she had “dropped out of school”. Fairgray said his understanding was people could only leave school once they turned 16.
“I thought we were a great fit personality-wise because we had similar thoughts, ideas and interests… that sort of thing.”
Fairgray said that included “Victorian England” and fashion.
He said the following day the girl invited him to her home.
“I greeted her at the door. I gave her a hug and she walked me to her room.”
Fairgray said the girl told him that she lived with her mother and brother but neither were home at the time.
He said the pair watched a movie on her bed before having sex.
“I would say she was physically developed… She looked like someone … she had the body of a 16 year-old and she was also as tall as I was.”
He said his opinion of her age was further strengthened by her saying she had dropped out of school and that she was left home alone overnight.
“I found her to be quite eloquent.”
Fairgray said the pair would exchange messages during the day and at night, which only bolstered his belief that she was over 16.
He said the pair spent time at her house and at his parent’s home. At one point his mother had found them in bed together and had invited the girl to a family dinner.
Fairgray said one day he was with the girl and her best friend. The two girls started talking about the possibility of a pregnancy.
He said he later went to a chemist and bought a pregnancy test and drove the girl to a petrol station so she could take the test in the bathroom.
Fairgray waited outside, in the driver’s seat of his mother’s car. The girl returned to the car about 10 minutes later.
“She told me she was pregnant and confessed to me that she had lied about her age and that she was actually 13… I was shocked. I was quite sad and I didn’t really know how to react.”
He confirmed to Gray that he had cried and had they had sat in the car for some hours, discussing what they should do next.
Fairgray said he booked the girl into an abortion clinic and confirmed he had lied about his own age to a clinician when making the booking.
He said they “broke up” after the pregnancy and did not have sex again but remained in touch.
Gray also asked him about two police officers visiting his home when the girl went missing. Fairgray confirmed he heard the officers talking to his father at the front door, “panicked” and jumped out his window.
“I thought they were coming for me because [the girl] was 13… even though she told me she was 16.”
He said he hid under the house but later agreed to speak to the police.
Fairgray said the girl later had told him the police wanted to interview her.
He said she had also tried to blackmail him by threatening to tell police that she told him about being 13 unless he paid for her online shopping. Fairgray said he refused to pay the money.
He also addressed aspects of the girl’s evidence.
The girl has previously told the court that on an occasion, when she and Fairgray were walking back from McDonald’s, he heard a police siren and ran off to hide under a car.
Fairgray said that never happened. He also refuted that the girl had shown him her school uniform.
Fairgray is yet to be cross-examined.
Earlier, the Court heard from clinical psychologist Dr James Cavney about Fairgray’s diagnosis of being on the autism spectrum.
Cavney said Fairgray’s autism would have impacted on his ability to “recognise deceit” if the girl had told him she was 16.
Under cross-examination from the Crown prosecutor Pip McNabb, Cavney confirmed that would only be relevant if the jury concluded the girl had lied to the Court.
The girl has told the Court that she repeatedly told Fairgray she was 13 years-old.
The trial, before Judge Evangelos Thomas and a jury, is in its second week.