Aaron Sweet: Ashfield man allegedly raped woman after date
A man has been charged with sex without consent after a young woman alleged she drank a different tasting tequila shot before waking up in bed naked with him.
Inner West
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A young woman allegedly raped earlier this year told police the last thing she remembered before waking up in bed with the man was taking a tequila shot with him.
Burwood Local Court on Thursday heard fresh details about the police case against Ashfield man Aaron Troy Sweet, who has been charged with having sex with the young woman without her consent.
The court heard Sweet, 43, had recently been released on parole for a similar offence at the time the young woman reported she was raped after agreeing to meet him for drinks in the wake of rejecting his “ongoing attempts”.
The woman, according to her statement to police, said she reluctantly agreed to meet Sweet and “just wanted to get it done”, making arrangements with her family to call so she could leave the date early.
Police allege the woman recalls having one last tequila shot to “placate” Sweet before she told officers she thought it tasted different, tried to stand up and call her nephew.
Her next memory, it is alleged, is waking up naked in bed with Sweet touching her back.
Sweet’s lawyer Paul Lewis, in arguing to have him released on bail, told Magistrate Alison Viney there was “no evidence a crime had even been committed”.
The young woman, Mr Lewis said, could not recall what had happened despite police saying they located Sweet’s DNA after examining the woman for a sexual assault.
“Looking at the facts we struggle to see that there is an offence,” he told the court.
“She says she doesn’t know what happened. There are expert reports that support that they don’t know what happened.”
Sweet allegedly told officers after his arrest that he never had sex with the young woman, but that she did perform a sex act on him.
He has pleaded not guilty and will likely face a trial in the District Court next year.
Magistrate Viney refused his bail application and remanded him back to Junee Correctional Centre.
ANTON.ROSE@NEWS.COM.AU
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