A defendant in an aggravated burglary and rape trial says he was with his partner, so could not have been driving a van that ram-raided a sports stadium on the night an ATM was stolen.

Instead, he has indicated it was the work of a drug-dealing associate, a relative of the girl he is accused of sexually assaulting.

“It would be impossible for me to commit these offences, as I was with my partner ... when the Pettigrew Arena was burgled,” Earl Strathern Campbell told the High Court at Napier on Wednesday.

Campbell is on trial on 11 charges, including rape, sexual violation, kidnapping, strangulation, aggravated burglary, unlawful possession of a firearm, and conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

His father, Ricky Campbell, has been charged with kidnapping and being an accessory to the burglary after the fact.

Both men have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The Crown alleges Earl Campbell was driving the van that crashed into the Pettigrew Green Arena, a sports and event centre in Taradale, Napier, in the early hours of November 8, 2020.

The target of the ram-raid was an ATM in the hallway, containing $19,800, which was stolen.

Crown prosecutor Clayton Walker says that 18 months after the raid, a young woman came forward to tell police she had been a passenger in the van and had been “roped into it” by Earl Campbell, when she was 15 years old.

She alleged that the van had been taken to Ricky Campbell’s house, where she was locked in a room while the ATM was opened.

The Crown also alleges Earl Campbell later raped her and forced her to do sexual acts with him at a motel, despite her saying no.

The young woman has statutory name suppression.

On Wednesday, Earl Campbell told the court he had known a relative of the girl for about many years and “the nature of that relationship is drug-dealing, by and large”.

He said the girl’s relative visited him at home on the evening of November 7, 2020, to buy cannabis. He lent the man his black BMW car with instructions to bring it back the next morning.

He then “called it a night” and went to bed. He said his partner would say she had been with him when he got into bed, and he was still there in the morning.

The next day, November 8, he and his partner booked into a Napier motel for a break and were visited that evening by the girl’s relative, who was returning the car late.

“He told me he had been involved in a burglary of some sort and had come into some money,” Campbell said.

The man did not say where he had done the burglary, but he said he had taken an ATM.

In relation to the charges of raping and sexually violating the girl, Campbell said he had never been alone with her.

He called the girl’s relative a “compulsive liar”.

He said the man had lied about what happened at the arena, and the events following, “to get me incarcerated”.

The trial, before Justice Helen Cull and a jury of eight women and four men, continues.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME's Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke's Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.