US Marine says ‘Nicole’ flirted with Smith

A US Marine testified yesterday that the woman who accused his colleague of rape was kissing and flirting with the accused and there were no signs of sexual abuse.

The 23-year-old woman known only as "Nicole" has testified she was drunk and too weak to stop the Nov. 1 assault by Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith of St. Louis, Missouri, while Staff Sgt. Chad Carpentier, Lance Cpl. Keith Silkwood and Lance Cpl. Dominic Duplantis allegedly cheered him on. If convicted, all four face a maximum of 40 years in jail.

The case has stirred emotions in the country and resurrected controversies linked to the US military presence in the Philippines.

Silkwood, 23, took the stand yesterday to deny that any assault took place in a moving van after the Marines left a bar with Nicole.

"I could tell they were kissing and flirtatious. They were kinda making out," he said. "It seemed like normal lovemaking, I guess. If you can call it that… there wasn’t any sign of anything not normal."

Smith earlier denied the rape charges while Carpentier testified that Nicole may have concocted her tale because she felt ashamed of her conduct.

Backing up the testimonies of Smith and Carpentier, Silkwood said Nicole appeared "normal" when she accompanied them to the Hyundai Starex van that would take the Marines back to the pier.

He said Nicole boarded the van first, was followed by Smith and both occupied the back seat where they "made love."

He repeated Smith’s account that Nicole had asked Smith, "Are you done already?" after their lovemaking in the back seat.

On the accusation that he watched Smith have sex with Nicole, Silkwood said he was not really watching but could hear and see from the side of his eye through peripheral vision.

"After that he continued to explain to her that there was no time." Silkwood said, adding that the Marines were rushing to beat curfew.

He said that at the Alaba pier of the Subic Bay Freeport, a former US naval base, Nicole "stepped out of the van with Smith’s assistance" but denied she had to be carried.

Nicole has told the court she was lowered from the van with her pants removed, and a Filipino witness who came to her help testified that she was "carried like a pig," — AP, Michael Punongbayan, Evelyn Macairan