Marquis Mack admits raping, graffitiing victim in Canberra car park

A rapist wrote his nickname, number and social media handles on his victim during an attack that left the woman feeling like “a piece of property”, a court has heard.

Marquis Mack, who has admitted raping a young woman in a Canberra car park in December 2021. Picture: Facebook

A rapist wrote his nickname, phone number and social media handles on his victim during a car park attack that left the woman feeling like “a piece of property”, a court has been told.

The victim has described being graffitied as “sickening”, telling the ACT Supreme Court her skin was almost raw by the time she had scrubbed the permanent marker off her body.

The young woman addressed the incident in a victim impact statement that was tendered to the court on Friday, when rapist Marquis Monte Rex Mack, 22, faced a sentence hearing.

Mack has pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual intercourse without consent and a charge of threatening to distribute intimate images.

He has admitted writing messages that included “Kees was here” on the victim before threatening to send pictures and videos of her to his workmate.

Marquis Mack, who is behind bars on remand as he waits to be sentenced. Picture: Facebook

The court heard Mack and the victim met at a Canberra bar in December 2021.

Mack, 19 at the time, introduced himself to the woman as “Kees”, and the pair eventually went across the road to a car park behind a fitness studio.

The ACT Supreme Court, where the sentence hearing occurred. Picture: Blake Foden

An agreed statement of facts says they kissed in an alcove in the car park, where Mack used a permanent marker to scrawl things like “call me for rough sex” on the walls.

He subsequently used the marker to write all over the woman’s body, despite her asking “what the f–k are you doing?” and telling him “don’t do that”.

The writing included Mack’s surname, mobile number, Instagram and Snapchat handles, and “Kees is Daddy x”.

“This is so funny,” Mack told the victim as he began filming and taking pictures of her.

“I’ve just got to send this to my workmate.”

The ACT courts building.

When the victim protested, Mack replied: “Chill. Like, just chill. No one is going to know it is you.”

After some consensual sexual activity, Mack forced the victim to give him oral sex.

The agreed facts state he then penetrated her without protection for several minutes, despite her having explicitly told him: “I’m not having sex with you without a condom.”

Mack only stopped the attack when a group of people arrived at the car park.

The pair then walked back to the front of the bar, where he told the victim: “Call me in a bit and I’ll meet you. I’m coming back to yours. We’ll finish what we started.”

The victim immediately called some friends, telling one of them: “I didn’t want it.”

After she and a friend unsuccessfully tried to scrub the marker off her body in a nightclub bathroom, the victim approached patrolling police officers to report the incident.

Mack was arrested the same day, but he was released and not charged until almost a year later.

He pleaded guilty in February and has been remanded in custody since late May, when his bail was revoked.

On Friday, in her written victim impact statement, the young woman told Chief Justice Lucy McCallum she “froze on that night”.

“I still feel frozen almost 3 years later,” she wrote.

“The traumatic outcome of this offence has turned me into someone I barely recognise.”

The victim described asking herself, during the attack, if she was “still alive or stuck in a nightmare”.

“I continue to struggle with flashbacks and PTSD that impact relationships, friendships, and my family dynamics,” she wrote.

“This offence has left me feeling empty inside, as if every part of me had been stripped away in a matter of minutes, by a man I had never met before.”

Prosecutor David Swan called for Mack to be sentenced to full-time imprisonment, telling the court anything less would not be appropriate.

Mr Swan said the offending had involved “significant sexual violence” against a vulnerable victim, whose “pointed” protests were ignored.

Defence barrister James Sabharwal said it was “difficult to fathom” his client’s behaviour.

“I cannot advance any explanation,” he told the court.

Chief Justice McCallum is expected to sentence Mack, who remains behind bars, in July.