U.S. Marine Charged With Rape Says Sex Was Consensual

Komfie Manalo - All Headline News Foreign Correspondent

Manila, Philippines (AHN) - U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, who is accused of raping a 22-year-old Filipino woman in a moving van on November 1, 2005 at a former American base in central Philippines, told a court that the sex was consensual.

On Monday the trial resumed for the military serviceman, and the 21-year-old U.S. Marine from St. Louis, Missouri said he started kissing "Nicole," the court-appointed name of the victim, inside the van and she responded. He told the court the woman introduced herself at a bar at the Subic Bay free port, sat on his lap and asked him if he could kiss her.

Smith, was the first to testify for the defense. Three other military service men are also accused in the rape, court documents say they are Lance Corporals Dominic Duplantis and Keith Silkwood and Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier. If convicted, all four face a maximum of 40 years in jail.

Smith told the court that when Carpentier told the Marines to leave the Neptune Club that night, "Nicole" allegedly appeared "disappointed" and asked him to stay longer. It was then that she asked the woman to go on a "short ride" with him to the gate.

While inside the van, where the alleged rape took place, he said the woman put "her hands on my back and she started leaning back, and jokingly I asked her, 'are you to trying to have sex right here?' She said 'yes' and I was kind of surprised."

He told the court, "I started to get undressed. She was doing the same," and adds that he got a condom from his back pocket after both of them pulled down their pants.

Smith said, "She assisted me [to] put the condom on. She had her hands on my penis. She leaned back and, assisted me in entering her."

He also denied a report by U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agent Guy Papageorge that he had drank five bottles of beer instead of one. Papageorge, one of several NCIS agents who investigated the alleged rape, interviewed Smith about 24 hours after the incident.

The four Marines were part of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Force stationed in Okinawa, Japan. They had just finished counter-terrorism exercises with Philippine troops when the alleged rape took place.

An estimated 20 women activists picketed the court Monday to denounce the U.S. Marines. The group was carrying signs bearing the pictures of the four accused with the words: "Rapists, liars!" and "Jail the 4 US Marines," written on them.

Emmi de Jesus, spokeswoman of the leftist women's group, Gabriela, said, "Today, as the world remembers the acts of terror committed against the American people, the Filipino people also condemn the acts of terror committed against Nicole, who was sexually violated by four American soldiers."