Justin Kane Millington on trial for sexual assault, touching charges at Redhead and Fernleigh Track

A Central Coast man accused of raping one woman at the Fernleigh Track and sexually touching another woman has been described as “respectful” and “polite”. Read what was said in court.

Justin Millington is on trial in Newcastle’s District Court. Supplied Amy Ziniak

A woman who was having an affair with a married man she met on the dating app Tinder several years ago has come to his defence after he was accused of rape, telling a jury “he was always very respectful”.

Justin Kane Millington, 49, from Wyong is on trial in Newcastle’s District Court after he pleaded not guilty to ten charges involving two woman in 2020 and 2021.

Court documents allege Millington sexually assaulted the first woman in bushland at the Fernleigh Track at Belmont and Nine Mile Beach on October 7, 2020.

Police allege one woman was raped by Millington at the Fernleigh track in October 2020. Generic image. Lifestyle Photographer, Kat Stanley

He has been charged with five counts of sexual intercourse without consent and one charge of sexual touching.

Exactly one year later, police allege Millington then sexually touched another woman at Redhead in Lake Macquarie. He is also facing another four counts of sexual touching.

Court documents revealed he allegedly grabbed at the woman’s vagina above her clothing, stuck his hands down the back of her pants, and also touched her breasts at her home against her will.

He has rejected all allegations.

In court on Tuesday, a woman who met Millington on Tinder in 2014, before she started a sexual relationship with him despite knowing he was married with children, told the jury he never tried to force himself on her.

“He was always very respectful of my boundaries,” she told Millington’s defence barrister Bill Hussey.

“He would never cross that line of consent. It had to be on my terms and my terms alone.”

The Central Coast woman told the court the pair had talked on Tinder for a while before they had arranged to meet in person at very public places on several occasions.

She said while it wasn’t sexual at first, their connection did end up in the bedroom, and even when they ceased a sexual relationship they remained friends.

“Do these charges match the person you know?” Mr Hussey questioned the woman, to which she replied, “absolutely not”, citing she was “shocked” when she heard the news.

But Crown Prosecutor Kristy Mulley questioned their friendship now, suggesting it hadn’t been strong since 2014, and it had been a “couple of years” since the pair had seen each other, with no contact in 2020 and 2021 when the alleged offences occurred.

Another woman who gave evidence on Tuesday painted Millington as a very “dependable and reliable friend”, saying she too was “shocked” at the allegations against him.

“It doesn’t gel well with the person I know as Justin, acted with integrity, respectful and solid Christian values,” she said.

The court heard the pair had met through their love of cycling in early 2014, when she was training for a 350 kilometre charity ride from London to Paris, and she needed assistance with her fitness.

She said she had spent many hours in his company, and he had met her husband and even his family.

“He was perfect gentleman, very respectful and polite,” she told the jury via video link on Tuesday.

But The Crown questioned whether she could even assist the court because their relationship wasn’t physical and she didn’t “know how he is when sexually aroused”.

Millington is on trial in Newcastle District Court. (AAP Image/Mark Russell)

She told the court she was unaware Millington was having an affair or was using Tinder at the time.

“Do you accept you don’t know all sides to Justin?” Ms Mulley asked the woman, to which she agreed, “yes”.

The last witness for the day also said she had know Millington through cycling and they had met six years ago when he helped her with a flat tyre on The Fernleigh Track.

She told the jury after they had become friends, he had looked after her home when she went down to Sydney for months to look after her sick father and he had also tried to sell her Yamaha motorbike after she had fractured her foot.

“Have you ever been alone with Justin and feel scared or intimidated?” Mr Hussey asked.

“No,” the woman replied.

“(he was) Empathetic, kind natured, respectful, he’s a good person.”

She told the jury she was “upset, ill and felt nauseous” on hearing of the charges against him.

The Crown Prosecutor also paid close attention to the motorbike which Millington had tried to sell for the woman, citing he could have used it on October 7, 2020, the day of some of the alleged offences.

The woman had explained it was locked away in her backyard but that Millington had the passcode to her home to get inside to take pictures of the bike to sell, and that it couldn’t be started without the key.

Ms Mulley questioned whether the woman was “just adding detail” because she was a good friend of Millington, and that she too didn’t know all sides to her friend after it was revealed she didn’t know he was married or had a Tinder profile.

“I’m trying to be truthful,” she said.

The jury will hear closing addresses by both parties on Wednesday.