Accused Gang Rapists Say Sex Was Consensual

Sept. 19, 2005 — -- Prosecutors in the gang rape trial of a door-to-door magazine salesman plan to present the defendant's alleged confession today. Meanwhile, two other salesmen charged in the alleged assault are claiming the alleged victim wanted sex with the trio.

Joseph Hannify, 25, of Chicopee, Mass., along with Cassidy Coburn, 19, of Utah, and Christopher Armstrong, 23, of Arkansas, is charged with raping a 19-year-old Concord, N.H., woman in March.

The woman said that Coburn and Armstrong talked their way into her apartment selling magazines. Police said the two men drank beer they found in the woman's refrigerator and offered her one that was already opened. The woman told police that a few minutes after drinking the beer she started feeling as if she had been drugged.

After a short time, they were joined by Hannify, she said, and the three of them ultimately gang-raped her.

She said Hanify first forced her to perform oral sex on him, and when she resisted the three raped her.

The three men were arrested in Maryland, a few days after the incident.

The three men have said that the sex was consensual. Armstrong testified on Friday that all four were drinking, dancing, kissing and flirting.

"She was wearing a skirt, a very short skirt," Armstrong said. "And I asked her if she had anything skimpier, and she said, 'Hold on,' and she went in the bedroom and she came out with skimpier clothes."

Armstrong testified that the alleged victim never said no and suggested that the group sex was her idea.

The woman did not want to let them leave the apartment, Coburn testified.

"Joe said we needed to leave and we started to leave, and she said, 'No,' and locked the door and led me into the bedroom," Coburn said.

But the testimony of both witnesses was different from the stories they initially told police.

Coburn's police statement said that he felt the alleged victim was scared and that what was taking place was wrong. Armstrong told authorities that he expected to be arrested and that the party atmosphere at the apartment had dramatically changed when the three left.

"I asked her what was wrong," Armstrong said in his statement to police. "I couldn't get her to talk to me. I asked, 'What's bothering you? Why are you crying?' She wouldn't answer me."

ABC News affiliate WMUR-TV in Manchester, N.H., contributed to this report.