Yunxiang Gao rape trial: Sydney woman cries over husband’s texts
A Sydney woman who was allegedly raped by a Chinese film star and his producer has been reduced to tears after being grilled in the witness box about ignoring her husband’s texts as she partied with the duo.
NSW
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Defence lawyers say an alleged rape victim’s husband was the “last thing” on her mind as she partied with a Chinese film star and his producer hours before accusing them of attacking her.
Yunxiang Gao’s barrister grilled the married woman about karaoke bar CCTV footage showing her posing for photos with the actor and touching the thigh of Jing Wang — who both insist she was a willing participant in their threesome at the Shangri-La Hotel last year.
When the China-born TV crew member was asked why she ignored messages from her sick husband who was home taking care of their daughter, she said it wouldn’t have been polite to leave the late night TV series wrap party.
“When I’m at work, I don’t reply sometimes,” the alleged victim told Downing Centre District Court.
“(And) a photo doesn’t mean anything, I took photos with many other famous people.”
Wang and Gao allegedly subjected the menstruating woman to a traumatising and degrading ordeal in the early hours of March 27, 2018.
The 37-year-olds have pleaded not guilty to a raft of charges including aggravated sexual assault in company where the victim was deprived of liberty, while Wang is also defending three counts of sexual intercourse without consent.
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Security tape from Gala KTV karaoke club recorded a few hours before the alleged assault shows Wang hugging the victim, who has previously testified she felt uneasy when he tried to kiss her.
When questioned under cross-examination about why she touched Wang’s thigh “closer to his crotch” as he whispered into her ear, the woman said she “just accidentally put my hand on his knee.”
“Had Mr Wang intimidated you by this stage?” Gao’s barrister Murugan Thangaraj SC asked.
“I can’t remember,” she replied.
The complainant burst into tears when asked why she didn’t respond to her husband when he texted her a crying face emoji around 11pm saying: “I’m having a cold, it feels bad.”
Mr Thangaraj suggested her family was “the last thing on your mind” at that time.
“If your daughter is worried about you and wants to find out what time you’re going to be home, why wouldn’t you reply?” he said on Thursday.
“Of course you saw it, you’re looking at your phone. You saw those messages, didn’t you?”
“I don’t remember,” the emotional woman replied.
Mr Thangaraj accused the woman of lying to a stunt co-ordinator when she claimed she’d taken Gao and Wang back to the luxury hotel because she was concerned they were behaving like drunken idiots.
The complainant lied when she said the men dragged her into a room and “did everything to me that two men could do”, the defence lawyer said.
“I never said lies,” the woman said.
Footage played to the jury showed the complainant say “oh here comes a big handsome guy from China” to Gao while on set in Sydney, but she said in her industry it’s sometimes a matter of respect to tell actors they’re beautiful.
Security footage from the night of the alleged attack captured Wang and the woman embracing alone in the hotel’s front driveway before he grabs her by the wrist and leads her into the elevator.
She’s previously testified that Gao forced her to perform oral sex on him in the hotel room bathroom while a naked Wang sat on the toilet smoking a cigarette as he watched.
Gao, whose celebrity actor wife Xuan “Michelle” Dong was not at court, allegedly laughed as the victim then fellated Wang, urging her to “do it quickly” as he slapped her on the buttocks.
The trial continues before Judge Penelope Hock.