Lawyers for Yunxiang Gao claim alleged rape victim’s stories are ‘inconsistent’
The legal team for a Chinese movie star charged with sexual assault have argued the alleged victim engaged in consensual “kissing and cuddling” with his co-accused and speculated she may have concocted a story to explain why she had returned home late to her husband.
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The legal team for a Chinese movie star charged with sexual assault have argued the alleged victim engaged in consensual “kissing and cuddling” with his co-accused and speculated she may have concocted a story to explain why she had returned home late to her husband.
Actor Yunxiang Gao — dubbed the “Hugh Jackman of China” — and producer Jim Wang are accused of sexually assaulting the 36-year-old woman at the Shangri-La in The Rocks after a film crew party in March this year.
Gao’s legal team argued the young woman had given inconsistent accounts of the night in question and therefore she should give evidence at a local court hearing before the matter progressed to a trial.
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Barrister John Korn, instructed by solicitor son Warwick Korn, told the court the alleged victim had given inconsistent police statements and needed to be cross-examined about them because the prosecution case relied heavily on her version of events.
Mr Korn said the woman denied having vaginal intercourse in her first police statement on March 27 this year but in her third statement stated that there had been vaginal intercourse.
The prosecution said evidence such as Gao and Wang’s semen and the alleged victim’s menstrual blood were evidence there had been vaginal intercourse.
Gao’s legal team also argued the alleged victim said she refused the “amorous advances” of producer Wang but CCTV footage showed her “engaging in consensual acts of kissing and cuddling” at a karaoke bar before she went back to the Shangri-La.
But in response to this the prosecutor said: “Even if somehow the counter narrative of consensual amorous acts between the complainant and Mr Wang were to be accepted it does not follow that she thereafter engaged in consensual sexual intercourse with him and the applicant.”
Mr Korn described the matter as “out of the ordinary” due to the inconsistencies and described a scenario where the alleged victim may have been trying to avoid conflict with her husband.
“Were [the allegations] made by her because of a genuine claim or was it a situation where she stayed out all night, she engaged in consensual behaviour …. and needed to avoid a situation with her husband and needed to find an excuse?” Mr Korn asked.
Magistrate Beverley Schurr will decide next Wednesday whether the alleged victim should have to give evidence in a local court committal hearing.
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