Scorn has been poured on an Indian woman's claims that her husband and his elderly mother forced her to have an abortion and that she was raped and beaten.

In the High Court at Rotorua defence counsel Frank Deliu called the accuser's evidence illogical, inconsistent and, at times, downright unbelievable.

He argued she had fabricated her allegations after the son withdrew his sponsorship for her to obtain New Zealand residency.

The marriage had been an arranged one.

Mr Deliu told the jury of eight men and four women that withdrawal of the sponsorship was the trigger which led to the woman becoming a completely different person.

He told jurors the Crown would have them believe the woman had been imprisoned in a "house of horrors" but had told no one.

Among those she had the chance to tell but didn't were a priest who Mr Deliu called a holy man, a man of honour", the president and secretary of the local Sikh society and a JP.

He said no one had ever been able to find evidence of the mystery pills the woman alleged she was forced to take when she thought she could be pregnant.

"There must be a better way to get out of a marriage than waging a 15-month campaign of rapes, beatings and killing your own foetus with the risk of going to prison for years and years," he submitted.

The son, a 33-year-old kiwifruit worker is charged with two counts of threatening to kill his wife, two of raping her, one of assaulting her with a knife, three of assaulting her and three of sexually violating her.

His mother has pleaded not guilty to a joint charge with her son of attempting to procure an abortion, to being a party to his assault on his wife and a separate assault charge involving her daughter-in-law.