Man ‘blacked out’ before alleged sexual assault at hands of Cricket Australia executive Tim Whittaker
The alleged victim of Cricket Australia executive Tim Whittaker told mates he “blacked out” after a staff party and woke to being sexually assaulted, a court has heard.
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The alleged victim of Cricket Australia executive Tim Whittaker told friends he “blacked out” and questioned whether his drink was spiked before he woke during a sexual assault, a court has heard.
Mr Whittaker, a long serving head of communications and top executive at CA, faces two charges of intentional sexual touching without consent after two men complained to police about separate incidents in 2016 and 2019.
In 2019, one man who had been partying with staff at a CA function claims to have woken in Mr Whittaker’s Abbotsford apartment to his senior colleague performing a lewd act on him.
The Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday heard that hours after leaving Mr Whittaker’s home, he met with two friends for breakfast in a cafe where he told them of waking up in his colleague’s bed and being sexually assaulted.
He told his friends he’d drank shots with others at Mr Whittaker’s house before passing out on his couch.
“It was unclear to him whether his drink had been spiked or whether it was relating to the alcohol,” one of his friends told the court.
“The result of him drinking (the shot) was that he blacked out in the apartment.”
The friend recalled being told that “he then quite rapidly blacked out, it wasn’t long between him drinking and passing out.”
He said the complainant was “not someone that blacks out, so that was very off-character for (him)”.
The duo, giving evidence separately to the court before Magistrate Tim Gattuso, said their mate told them he’d woken up with his pants and underwear down and Mr Whittaker touching his penis.
That night, several hundred Cricket Australia staff had attended an end of season function.
The court heard a second complainant from a separate 2016 incident felt compelled to come forward to authorities upon hearing of the 2019 allegation.
Mr Whittaker, who now lives in Spring Hill in QLD, denies both charges.
The hearing continues.
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