Former Cricket Australia head of communications Tim Whittaker charged with intentional sexual touching against two men without consent
A former Cricket Australia executive is accused of sexually assaulting a man who was left “crying and very scared” and told a colleague “something f**ked up has just happened”, a court has heard.
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A man who accused ex-Cricket Australia executive Tim Whittaker of sexual assault after an end of season function told colleagues “something really f**ked up happened at Tim’s”, a court has heard.
The Melbourne Magistrates’ Court was told that colleagues partied at Mr Whittaker’s Abbotsford apartment on March 16, 2019, where he texted a female escort before allegedly performing a lewd act on a sleeping colleague.
The former long serving head of communications, 38, has been charged with two counts of intentional sexual touching against two men without consent, in 2016 and 2019.
The court on Wednesday heard from witnesses to the 2019 incident, who attended the “cowboy themed” end of season Cricket Australia function at South Melbourne’s Half Acre.
Former staffer Sean Larkin said the event doubled as a “send off” for Mr Whittaker who had accepted a job with the International Cricket Council in Dubai, and seven or eight people went to his Abbotsford apartment for a nightcap and to eat McDonalds.
A photograph was shown to the court from that night of Mr Larkin sitting on the couch between colleague Jane Livesy and Mr Whittaker.
Mr Whittaker could be seen with his arm draped around the alleged victim, who sat in front of him on the L-shaped couch, between his legs.
Mr Larkin said he was among the last to leave Mr Whittaker’s home in the early hours of the morning, after the communications boss questioned him about his sex life and told him he’d been sleeping with an escort.
“He told me he’d been sleeping with a paid escort and suggested that it would be fun to get her over,” Mr Larkin said of the conversation with Mr Whittaker in his bedroom, while another colleague slept on the couch in the lounge room.
“I didn’t fully think it was that serious … had a bit of a laugh then I believe he texted (the escort).”
But Mr Larkin went home soon after, about 5am, leaving his colleague sleeping on the couch.
“I thought he was safe there and he was asleep,” he recalled.
About four hours later he noticed missed calls and a voice message from his sleeping colleague, who sounded like he was “crying and very scared” and said, “something f**ked up has just happened”.
Mr Larkin said the man told him: “Tim Whittaker sexually assaulted him, that he woke up in (Whittaker’s) bed with his pants and underwear fully off and Tim was jerking his penis … He said that when he woke, Tim realised and then turned over and pretended to fall asleep.”
Ms Livesy told the court she also received voice messages and spoke to the alleged victim the day after the party.
“He said to me that when he woke up he was no longer on the couch, he was in Mr Whittaker’s bed, and his pants had been pulled down,” she said.
Ms Livesy said the man told her he’d been assaulted by Mr Whittaker and when he fled the apartment, he received a call from him.
“Hey, where have you gone,” the court heard Mr Whittaker told the alleged victim.
“Mr Whittaker was trying to get (the complainant) to come back upstairs and trying to tell him nothing had happened,” Ms Livesy relayed to the court.
Ms Livesy said she told the man about “a similar incident involving Mr Whittaker that I had been told of about six months before”.
Upon returning to work on Monday, she said she learned the man had decided to report the incident to Cricket Australia HR.
That same day, Ms Livesy said Mr Whittaker sent her a Snapchat message, despite having earlier communicated by text message.
“It said something like, ‘What the heck is going on’, or, ‘What the f**k is going on’,” she said.
The hearing, before Magistrate Tim Gattuso, continues.
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