Former union boss Dave Hanna pleads not guilty to rape

A woman sent messages to her friends begging them to “please help me” and “save me” in the minutes before she was allegedly raped in her own home, a court has heard.

Dave Hanna arrives at the District Court in Brisbane this morning. Picture: Dave Hunt/AAP

A WOMAN sent messages to her friends begging them to “please help me” and “save me” in the minutes before she was allegedly raped in her own home, a court has heard.

Former CFMMEU boss David Arthur Hanna is accused of raping the woman, recording himself performing sex acts on her and taking photos of her as she lay naked and “seemingly unconscious” on the bed.

Hanna today pleaded not guilty to three charges of rape and one of making recordings in breach of privacy in relation to the alleged incidents in March 2017.

Prosecutor Michael Lehane told Brisbane District Court witnesses would give evidence the alleged victim had been out drinking and was heavily intoxicated when she met Hanna at a Fortitude Valley rooftop bar.

He said the 30-year-old woman was so drunk she had lost her handbag and was asked to leave the bar minutes after meeting Hanna, who tried to find her handbag for her before getting in a taxi with her.

Mr Lehane said taxi driver Donald Braithwaite would give evidence he heard Hanna tell the woman he wanted to “do the right thing by you and get you home” to her unit at Taigum in Brisbane’s north.

“Mr Braithwaite will explain (the woman) appeared to him to be extremely intoxicated, whereas the accused didn’t appear intoxicated at all,” the prosecutor said.

“While driving, at one point Mr Braithwaite noticed (the woman) was up against the passenger door and the accused was in the middle up against her.

“He will describe the accused as being all over her. He heard a few moans from her which he described as not moans of pleasure.”

The court is expected to be shown CCTV images from the cab ride in which Mr Lehane said Hanna’s hands could be seen on the woman.

Dave Hanna (right) arrives at Brisbane District Court today. Picture: Dave Hunt/AAP

Mr Lehane said during the trial, the jury would hear when they arrived back at the house the woman sent messages pleading for help, first to a friend saying “save me” and another to her ex-boyfriend saying “please help me”.

He said the woman also called out to her roommate who she knew was not home to make Hanna think they were not alone in the house.

“The next thing she can remember is that the accused was on top of her and she was lying on her back on her bed with him on top of her and she was saying I don’t want to,” Mr Lehane said.

“She remembers feeling him force her legs apart… she recalls several times saying I don’t want to, she was scared, she felt like she was being held down.”

The court heard the woman woke up the next morning and saw the outfit she had worn the night before on the floor with both sleeves torn off and she had bruises on her thighs.

When police arrested Hanna two days later, they allegedly found videos and images from the night in question in the deleted items on his phone.

In two videos taken at 2.45am and 3.02am, a man’s hand can be seen digitally penetrating a woman who is not moving.

Mr Lehane said deleted photos taken at 3.42am that same morning show the victim on her back completely naked on the bed “seemingly unconscious” with her eyes closed and mouth open and another photo close-up of her vagina.

“The Crown case is that because of her gross intoxication, (the woman) lacked the cognitive capacity to consent, or alternatively, if she didn’t lack that capacity, she wasn’t consenting,” the prosecutor said.

“In the cases of (the alleged digital rapes) the Crown alleges that (the woman) wasn’t consenting because she was asleep, or alternatively she was actually conscious she did not have the cognitive capacity to consent because she was in a drunken stupor.

“In essence, the Crown case is that the accused knowing that (the woman’s) cognitive capacity to give consent to sexual activity and her physical capacity to resist unwanted sexual activity was affected if not taken away by her gross intoxication, took advantage of his position and her vulnerability by committing either non-consensual acts upon her or sexual acts where she lacked the cognitive capacity to consent.”