Lawyer for Salt Creek kidnapper says his ex-girlfriend is unreliable, mentally ill, scorned and cannot be believed about rape allegation
THE Salt Creek kidnapper’s former girlfriend is “a woman scorned” whose claims of rape are unreliable for nine reasons including her mental illness, a court has heard.
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THE Salt Creek kidnapper’s former girlfriend is “a woman scorned” whose claims of rape are unreliable for nine reasons including her mental illness, a court has heard.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court was told the man, 60, would not be giving evidence to defend himself against claims he attacked the woman one month before his Coorong crimes.
Bill Boucaut SC, for the man, asked the court to acquit his client of the latest allegations, saying the alleged victim’s evidence could not be believed for “nine reasons”:
HER “significant and longstanding” mental illness which, he claimed, could include symptoms of “irrationality, paranoia and hallucinations”;
LIES she had told during her evidence, including a denial she had exposed herself to the man via webcam;
HER attempt to “drastically play down” the severity of her mental illness;
A HIATUS of several days between the alleged rape and her return to her interstate home, during which another person could have attacked her;
DIFFERENCES between her account and those of witnesses in whom she confided about the alleged rape;
HER reluctance to show her purported bruises to her doctor;
HER reluctance to involve the police, indicating she “is somebody who wants sympathy but not the scrutiny of the authorities”;
HER “incredibly histrionic” evidence in the trial, including her decision to “hold the Bible aloft when she wanted to stress things”; and
HER bitterness over the end of the former couple’s relationship.
“She is a woman scorned ... I don’t want to be melodramatic about it,” Mr Boucaut said.
“She is most certainly a woman scorned and rejected by the love of her life — not only scorned, but embarrassed.”
His assertions were sternly refuted by prosecutor Jim Pearce QC.
“There is no suggestion that she has been vindictive, and just because someone is upset does not mean they are psychotic or lying about what happened to them,” he said.
In February last year, the man, 60, attacked two backpackers — from Brazil and Germany — at the remote Coorong beach having first made contact with them via the internet.
Prosecutors have since alleged that, a month before that incident, he tied his online girlfriend to his bedhead with a satin cord and then raped her.
The man has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and false imprisonment filed over that alleged incident.
His second trial began just before the announcement of the closure of Oakden Older Persons Mental Health Service, amid allegations of overdoses, physical abuse, seclusion and rough-handling of patients.
That closure postponed the trial, as a key witness is part of the investigation into the allegations.
On Wednesday, Mr Boucaut said the charges should be dismissed, claiming the woman and her friends had “jumped on the bandwagon” of the Salt Creek “media frenzy”.
“She told police ‘I saw some footage on the news ... straight away I recognised (the man), he had the same T-shirt on that I had got him for Christmas’,” he said.
Prosecutor Jim Pearce QC urged the court to accept the woman’s evidence as proof, beyond reasonable doubt, that she had been raped.
He said it was supported by the DNA match found on the satin cord as well as her bruises, which the woman herself had photographed.
Justice Trish Kelly remanded the man in custody and will hand down her verdict on a date to be set.