Canberra brothel owner Bradley Lester Grey, 54, denies raping nine ‘naive’ sex workers
A Canberra brothel owner allegedly lured naive young women from around Australia with the promise of big pay cheques after flying them from their homes before raping them during “training sessions”, a court has heard.
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A Canberra brothel owner allegedly lured naive young women from around Australia with the promise of big pay cheques after flying them from their homes before raping them during “training sessions”, a court has heard.
Bradley Lester Grey, 54, the owner of Mitchell Mistresses in Canberra’s northern suburbs, has pleaded not guilty to more than two-dozen charges relating to nine women between 2015 and 2017.
In his closing address to the jury on Tuesday, crown prosecutor Trent Hickey said consent could not be “imposed” by an employer or prospective employer.
Mr Hickey said Grey “didn’t give (the women) a choice to say ‘no’ and that the “training” he put them through was “simply a sham for him to have sexual intercourse with them”.
One of the women said she had been promised up to $10,000 a week only for Grey to pick her up from Sydney airport “in a shitty station wagon” and take drive her straight to Canberra for a photo shoot and the “training”.
“The Crown’s case is that at no time did (the women) freely and voluntarily consent,” Mr Hickey said.
Grey’s case is that the training was a legitimate part of the women’s induction to the sex industry.
Barrister Beth Morrisroe, for Grey, said the jurors should “ask themselves ‘how would you train someone for that situation, that first experience, of having sexual intercourse with a stranger in a commercial situation?’.”
She said none of the women immediately reported Grey’s alleged rapes and molestations.
“Maybe, they wouldn’t have done it again, but retrospectivity that doesn’t take away what they did at the time,” she said.
She said all of the women knew they were going into the sex industry, “could simply have walked out the door” and that Grey was not paying them a wage or superannuation, so was not in a position of authority over them.
The jury, which will determine the fate of Grey, is expected to begin deliberating on Wednesday afternoon, following more than two weeks of evidence.
The trial is before ACT Chief Justice Helen Murrell.