Don’t judge Ibrahim girlfriend over volatile relationship, Sydney jury urged
John Ibrahim often treated his model girlfriend “with absolute contempt” but she stayed with the Sydney identity because “the human heart doesn’t always obey the laws of logic”, Sarah Budge’s lawyer told her trial today.
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A Sydney jury has been urged not to judge John Ibrahim’s girlfriend for staying with the Kings Cross identity despite the fact that he treated her “with absolute contempt”.
“The human heart doesn’t always obey the laws of logic,” model Sarah Budge’s lawyer told her Sydney gun possession trial.
The glamorous restaurateur is “unshaken in her conviction” that in 2017 she had no idea how a loaded Glock pistol ended up at her eastern suburbs home, and now blames her 51-year-old partner or someone close to him for planting it there.
On Thursday the Downing Centre District Court jury were reminded Budge is “not on trial for having a relationship with Mr Ibrahim”.
“She is a conflicted person, she holds suspicions,” defence barrister Simon Buchen SC said.
“She still wants to think the best of Mr Ibrahim, who she wants to have a child with.”
Police found the stolen weapon while searching Budge’s Double Bay apartment and the 29-year-old cried as she defended her choice to stand by Mr Ibrahim despite his refusal to tell her the truth.
“You may not respect that, that may not be your idea of a relationship but that’s their relationship,” Mr Buchen said.
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Text messages sent between the couple while Budge fretted over her dying mother reveal numerous arguments about Mr Ibrahim’s past lovers, and two weeks before the dawn raids the former nightclub owner became enraged when he declared he was single on live radio.
Budge was desperate to marry the “charismatic” man 21 years her senior, but complained he often turned cold when she needed him most, bringing her to tears as he ignored her for days on end.
“You must be opened-minded that every relationship is different and has its own dynamics,” Mr Buchen told the jury in his closing address.
“You need to be fair.”
Days before the raids on August 8, 2017 Mr Ibrahim ordered a bizarre eyebrow-waxing punishment for two underlings who had been caught stealing $30,000 from his furious brother Michael Ibrahim to “calm things down”, the court heard.
“Was it in that context that John Ibrahim obtained a firearm that had to be put somewhere?” Mr Buchen asked.
Budge was house sitting at Mr Ibrahim’s clifftop mansion while he was overseas when he sent her a strange text message on July 30 saying: “take bins out. Keep the curtains closed.”
When Budge asked why he was “acting weird” and “being mean” Mr Ibrahim told her a man with a telescopic lens had been spotted outside his Dover Heights manor.
But soon Mr Ibrahim once again shut down the conversation completely, texting his girlfriend: “stop with the f***ing questions, just relax”, the court heard.
“There were times he treated her with absolute contempt,” Mr Buchen said.
Mr Ibrahim cut his trip short and came home early during that critical period but kept his distance from a frustrated Budge, who texted him: “God you’re annoying, why wont you answer?”
On August 5 he took an interest in Budge’s movements, inquiring about her morning personal training session, the court heard.
“You there yet?” he asked her in a text message.
“Lol. Leaving mine now to go,” Budge replied.
“That’s the way,” Mr Ibrahim said.
At the time Budge was juggling three jobs amid constant trips to the hospital to visit her terminally ill mum, and Mr Buchen said there were many opportunities for someone to break into her flat.
Budge was “hopeless” with keys and on one occasion managed to lock herself out of her unit immediately after locking her cavoodle Zoe in the car, the court heard.
She left a spare set of house keys at Mr Ibrahim’s place, Mr Buchen said.
The two-week trial continues before his honour David Arnott, who warned the jury not to judge Budge for Mr Ibrahim’s “colourful past.”
“This is not a court of morals, it’s a court of law,” he said.