Actor John Jarratt ‘whispered’ during alleged rape of housemate

A young John Jarratt smelt of booze when he pinned down a sleeping housemate and repeatedly whispered in her ear she was just like his wife but blonde as he raped her in their Sydney share house, a jury has been told.

A young John Jarratt smelt of booze when he pinned down a sleeping housemate and repeatedly whispered in her ear she was just like his wife but blonde as he raped her in their Sydney share house, a jury has been told.

The actor’s District Court trial began on Monday in the Downing Centre after he pleaded not guilty to one count of raping a woman in the Randwick home in 1976.

Actor John Jarratt denies raping a woman in a Sydney home in 1976. Picture John Grainger

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Crown prosecutor John Bowers, in his opening address, said the jury was expected to be shown a taped statement from Jarratt that states the extramarital sex was consensual and occurred on the night he was confirmed as the lead actor for the film Summer City.

Rosa Miano is also expected to testify during her husband’s trial that he told her about the extramarital sex eight years later in 1984, Mr Bowers said.

The prosecutor said he expected the complainant to testify she at no time consented to sex and that Jarratt covered her mouth during the incident.

“She’ll say the accused … was whispering in her ear ‘You’re just like a blonde Rosa’,” he told the jury.

Actor John Jarratt arrives at court today. Picture: John Grainger

Jarratt was charged after the complainant — who can’t be named for legal reasons — reported the matter to police in late 2017.

Defence barrister Greg James said the Crown witness was asserting a rape “of a most forceful kind”.

To return a guilty verdict, the jury had to be satisfied the sexual encounter was non-consensual and there was “no other rational conclusion … notwithstanding all the time that has passed and all the silence”, Mr James said.

He argued the woman’s account to others suggested there was consensual intercourse rather than rape.

The woman later appeared via audio visual link and told the court she was sleeping in her bed in the share house about 3am when Jarratt — smelling of alcohol — got on top of her and unzipped himself before the incident.

She said Jarratt whispered in her ear “you’re just like a blonde Rosa” about “three or four times”.

The woman said her underwear and T-shirt were torn off her during the incident.

She said afterwards did not tell anyone immediately because she did not want to jeopardise her friendship with Ms Miano and her friend’s marriage with Jarratt.

“I couldn’t look at (Jarratt), I couldn’t speak in case I let out an emotion and showed vulnerability or something to Rosa … I was protecting her,” she told the court.

The trial continues.