Woman tells court she ‘zoned out’ during alleged rape by high-profile Sydney man
A woman who claims she was raped by a high-profile Sydney man said she “zoned out until it was over”, a court has heard.
The woman had travelled interstate to stay with the man after returning from a trip abroad. The court heard she had messaged the man saying she was back in Melbourne likely “straight away” after returning to Australia because she had “nowhere to live”. She then flew to Sydney after the man suggested she meet him there.
She said she was exhausted when she arrived at his home, hadn’t eaten and went to his bed to rest. She said he then came into the room and wanted to do “sexual stuff”, which is when she alleges two counts of rape occurred.
“I remember just freezing up and letting it happen … I told him I had my period,” the woman, known as complainant four, told the court of the alleged two counts of rape. “It was a really weird blur … I think I dissociated and I zoned out until it was over.”
Under cross-examination, the court heard the woman had sent an email to police after she reported the incident that the sex felt “weird” and she went “along with it … in [the] hope it would get me opportunities or something”.
The woman is the fourth complainant of six to appear before the New South Wales Downing Centre district court in a trial expected to last 10 weeks.
The man, who Guardian Australia cannot name due to a suppression order, is facing trial after pleading not guilty to 12 charges – which include six counts of rape – alleged to have occurred over a six-year period against six women on separate occasions.
The crown is arguing the man had a tendency to carry out sexual conduct with usually much younger women, knowing that they did not consent or that he was reckless to their consent.
The man’s defence argues there was sex with the five women who have alleged he raped them. However, his defence argues, the sex was consensual, “not in the circumstances alleged by the crown”, and that the complainants “admired the accused, even idolised him”.
Under questioning from the crown, complainant four told the court she and the accused had sex shortly before she went abroad.
“I felt quite powerless to be honest, I didn’t feel I had a choice to say if I wanted him to do that or not,” she told the court of that occasion. This encounter is not part of the allegations made against him in this trial.
Under cross-examination by the accused’s defence counsel, David Scully SC, the court was shown a photo of the woman having breakfast with the accused the morning after their first sexual encounter. Asked if she was in a good mood, she said she was.
She was asked by Scully if she felt violated during the first sexual encounter, she said she did. He then drew her on the fact she didn’t mention this in the first statement she made to police in 2020. Asked if she did not feel violated when she gave the statement, three years after the incident, the woman responded: “Yeah, I guess not.”
The court heard that while the woman was travelling abroad, she had messaged the accused asking for his help, saying she was “virtually homeless”.
He then connected her with a person he called his “most trusted friend” and followed up to see if she was OK.
“[The accused] said if I had any problems to contact him, so I did,” she told the court.
When she returned from abroad, and messaged the man saying she was back in Melbourne, he responded with an offer to pay for a ticket to come see him. The court heard she replied: “OMG you’re so sweet.”
The day after she alleges the two counts of rape occurred, the court heard under questioning from the crown that she went to a bar with the accused and some friends and that she was upset.
“I feel like I just kept saying, ‘I don’t understand why I’m here, I don’t know why I’ve been asked to come here, he doesn’t seem to care about me at all’, and things like that,” she told the court.
“I was very confused, I didn’t know why I was there.”
After she had spent three nights at the accused’s house, he told her he had organised her a plane ticket back to Melbourne, the woman said.
“I didn’t have any time to organise where I was going because I still didn’t have anywhere to live,” she told the court.
Asked under cross-examination by Scully if the complainant didn’t expect the accused would spend one night with her and then “party” the other nights with other people, she said it wasn’t what she was expecting.
She was then asked if she thought during her interactions with the accused that it might present her opportunities, the woman responded: “Well I couldn’t imagine hanging out with him if I didn’t think it would have some sort of benefit on my career.”
Scully then asked if that was the reason for her sexual interaction, in which she alleges she was raped.
“Absolutely not, no,” she responded.
The court heard that in 2019, the complainant responded to a social media post made about the accused by someone she didn’t know.
In a message exchange between the pair, the person who made the post told the complainant she was “organising something secret for all the [people] he abused”.
She later messaged the complainant saying, “but if anything that he did to you classified as an assault your statement could be very valuable to help others”.
Asked by Scully if the interaction with this person had caused her to become angry, she said: “No, I felt more relieved that I wasn’t crazy.
The trial continues and complainant four remains under cross-examination.
