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‘Nicole’ statement hints that Daniel Smith didn’t rape her


MANILA, Philippines - "Looking back I would not have agreed to talk with him and dance with him no less than three times if I did not enjoy his company or what at least attracted me to him since I met him for the first time on the dance floor." With this statement, "Nicole," the Filipina who caused the conviction of a US serviceman in 2006, changed her testimony against Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, hinting that she was not raped by the American. In a five-page sworn statement she signed last March 12, Nicole admitted that she "possibly lost (her) inhibitions" and became "intimate" with Smith, after drinking "alcoholic mixed drinks" with him when they met at a bar in Subic, Olongapo City on November 1, 2005. Did he really want to rape me? She said that if Smith really wanted to rape her, "why would he carry me out of the Neptune Club using the main entrance in full view of the security guards and others," she said. "Why would the van park in front of Neptune Club? Why would Daniel Smith and his companions bring me to the seawall of Alaba pier and casually leave this area that was well-lighted and with many people roaming around?" Nicole added. "If they believed that I was raped, would they have not dumped me instead in a dimly lit area along the highway going to Alaba pier to avoid detection?" she furthered. He kissed my lips Nicole said she told the court that Smith "kissed my lips and neck and held my breast inside the van." "Recalling my testimony, I ask myself how I could have remembered this if witnesses told the court that I passed out and looked unconscious," she said. “How could I have resisted his advances given this condition? Daniel Smith and I were alone on the third row of the van which had limited space and I do not recall anyone inside the van who held my hand or any part of my body," she added. In the same statement, Nicole said that she was expecting that many sectors would question her motives in coming out with a new statement regarding the case. "However…I can’t help but entertain doubts on whether the sequence of events in Subic last November of 2005 really occurred the way the court found them to have happened," she said. She said that she was continuously being bothered by her conscience and realized that "I may have in fact been so friendly and intimate with Daniel Smith at the Neptune Club that he was led to believe that I was amenable to having sex or that we simply just got carried away." Lawyer fired, money received It was also on March 12 that Nicole wrote a letter terminating the services of her lawyer in the celebrated Subic rape case and signed a document attesting that she received money from Smith. Court documents released to media on Tuesday, showed that Nicole wrote a "Notice of Termination" to her counsel, Evalyn Ursua last March 12. The papers also showed that on the same day, she signed a "Receipt and Release" document stating that she received P100,000 from Smith. Her receipt of the amount was in accordance with the December 4, 2006 order of the Regional Trial Court of Makati City, Branch 139 to indemnify the victim with P50,000 for compensatory damages and P50,000 for moral damages. Earlier in the day, Ursua said that she was told by Nicole's mother that the victim flew to the US and has been staying in the country since last week. Ursua did not tell when Nicole exactly left for the US. She said it was Nicole's mother who gave her a letter stating that the victim had already terminated her services. Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez doubted that Nicole went to the US because she was frustrated with the justice system in the Philippines. He said Nicole’s decision to go the US ironically “shows that her supposed…grief and hatred expressed before is not very genuine." “If she just went to Italy may be that would be more illustrative of her feelings against the US. But she did not go to Italy. She went to the US," Gonzalez told media on Tuesday. - GMANews.TV
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