Gumtree rental allegedly turns into horror rape for student

A man has denied advertising his apartment to rent on Gumtree and then drugging and raping the student who responded.

A man has denied drugging and raping an international student who rented space in his sharehouse.

The Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday heard Marco Gastello, 43, denied advertising his Docklands apartment on Gumtree and then assaulting the 25-year-old woman who moved in about four years ago.

The woman told the court Mr Gastello was drinking and smoking weed in the kitchen on the night of the alleged attack.

She coughed while making a cup of tea and he offered her vodka to “kill the bacteria” and they had several drinks together, she said.

She alleges she woke up the next morning in his bed with bruises on her legs and no memory of how she got there.

Mr Gastello denies the charges of two counts of rape, administering an intoxicating substance for a sexual purpose and sexual assault.

The woman said on Monday she woke up with a “different kind of blur” to waking up after a night of drinking.

“After drinking this glass, I don’t remember much,” she said.

“I had to use all the walls to walk back to my bedroom.”

She had an impression like a “memory or dream” of being dragged by her wrists, which she recalled in the intervening years, she said.

Mr Gastello moved to Australia from Peru in 2009 and has worked as an Uber driver, in security, and in hospitality.

In a bail application last year, the Supreme Court of Victoria heard the alleged victim woke up dizzy and confused but had the foresight to take a sample from the glass Mr Gastello had given her to drink vodka.

It tested positive for a sedative prescribed to people who can’t sleep, Oxazepam, which was also in her urine, the court heard.

The committal hearing continues Tuesday.

Originally published as Gumtree rental allegedly turns into horror rape for student