Rape charge against chef Kelvin Zachary Andrews, 33, dropped

A charge against a well-known chef accused of raping a woman at a trendy Brisbane hotel has been dropped, with a magistrate finding ‘no direct evidence’.

Prominent Brisbane chef Kelvin Zachary Andrews, left, with his lawyer outside court. Picture: NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

A Queensland chef who previously headed several high-profile restaurants in Brisbane and the Gold Coast has had the rape charge against him dropped.

Kelvin Zachary Andrews, 33, was charged with raping a young woman in March 2023 in a hotel room within the luxury Calile Hotel in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley.

He had maintained his innocence, denying any sexual activity in the hotel room and instead telling police that he got the woman water and a towel to wipe her vomit before leaving.

The case was the subject of a committal hearing in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday to decide whether it should continue for trial in a higher court.

It was alleged Mr Andrews and the young woman were both drinking alcohol that night in the Sushi Room private function area within the James St hotel.

The events in the Sushi Room were captured by security cameras.

Kelvin Zachary Andrews, 33, has headed the kitchen at Nineteen at the Star in Broadbeach and worked at the now-defunct restaurant Fish House in Burleigh Heads, and the original Hellenika on the Gold Coast. Picture: NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

It was alleged the pair were “kissing” and “straddling” in the Sushi Room and there was brief penetration - although this was not part of the rape charge.

In a phone call between Mr Andrews and the complainant 10 days after the incident, they discussed what happened.

Andrews: “I was inside you, yes, downstairs in the Sushi Room.”

Complainant: “We had sex in the Sushi Room?”

Andrews: “Yes. Well, it was in for like two f---ing seconds and then it [his penis] came out.”

It was alleged the complainant became more intoxicated throughout the night, prompting Mr Andrews to call another woman to help him assist her.

The complainant believed she only had two drinks that night, but CCTV footage from the Sushi Room showed her having at least five drinks. The court also heard she was relatively new to drinking alcohol, having only started the year before.

Mr Andrews paid for the hotel room at the Calile and he and the other woman assisted the complainant upstairs, before they both returned downstairs.

The court heard the complainant then texted Mr Andrews from the upstairs room.

She referred to them being “soulmates” and asked him to “come and cuddle her”.

Mr Andrews replied: “Get some sleep or come down and get me.”

Hotel security cameras captured him later going into the hotel room for around nine minutes.

The complainant gave evidence on Tuesday, but this was done in a closed courtroom.

Defence lawyer Angus Edwards, representing Mr Andrews, said there was no evidence of sexual penetration happening in the hotel room.

“She says she can remember seeing his hands by his belt and she can remember her legs being lifted up, but nothing else,” he told the committal hearing.

“The next thing she remembers is him leaving and saying: ‘Tell me you want this when you’re sober.’”

Mr Edwards said there were no physical injuries on the complainant and although a DNA sample had been taken from the accused, but due to well-documented delays in the state’s forensic testing lab, no results had been received as yet.

The complainant’s friend also gave evidence at the committal hearing.

The complainant said the incident took place in a room at The Calile hotel in Brisbane’s James St. File picture: David Clark

She said the complainant was “so out of it” the day after the alleged incident that she suggested her drink may have been spiked and that she should go to the hospital.

The complainant told her friend that she couldn’t remember what happened in the hotel room other than she “couldn’t move her body”.

“Was I raped? Did he rape me?” the complainant asked her friend the next day.

The complainant’s toxicology report done the next day showed no drugs in her system.

Magistrate Jacqui Payne discharged Mr Andrews on the rape charge.

“I consider there is no direct evidence from the complainant or circumstantial evidence capable of an inference that there was a sexual penetrative act in the hotel room,” she ruled.

“I am of the opinion that the evidence is not sufficient to put you on trial for the indictment upon which you have been charged.”

Mr Andrews was visibly emotional in the courtroom and immediately afterwards outside after being discharged, seemingly crying tears of relief.

Mr Andrews was considered the “K” in well-known hospitality operation STK Group, behind other popular Fortitude Valley venues such as Hellenika, Sushi Room and Sunshine.

He was formerly the head chef at luxury Fortitude Valley steakhouse SK Steak & Oyster, having joined the STK Group in 2019.

Prior to that, he headed the kitchen at luxury restaurant Nineteen at the Star in Broadbeach on the Gold Coast, worked at now-defunct restaurant Fish House in Burleigh Heads, and the original Hellenika on the Gold Coast.