A pregnant north Taranaki woman has told a jury she lied to police when she accused her partner of raping and assaulting her.

The man, in his 30s, cannot be named in order to protect his partner's identity.

In the New Plymouth District Court yesterday the unemployed man denied raping the woman, indecently assaulting her and assaulting her with intent to injure her on the night of June 15 last year. Crown prosecutor Justin Marinovich said the case involved the woman being dominated physically, mentally and sexually by the accused.

The woman told police her partner had raped her, strangled her, kicked and bitten her, and forced her to go with him to New Plymouth to buy cannabis.

But within a month she changed her statement, asking police to drop the charges, Marinovich said. Giving evidence for the Crown, the woman told the court her anger had been building all day after discovering her partner had sex with "a chick" in Auckland.

She had caused the injuries to her body herself when they argued and she "lost it".

"He grabbed me around the neck to shut me up because I'd been throwing things at him."

She wept when saying she lied to police because she wanted revenge. She had plenty of time to concoct the story of what happened.

In reply to Marinovich, who asked why she was taking the blame, the woman said: "What I've done to [the accused] is just hideous."