Twister and tequila allegedly turned into sick act in Melbourne

A woman asleep in Melbourne allegedly woke up to a sick act after drinking tequila and playing board games including Cluedo and Twister.

A woman allegedly woke up to someone performing oral sex on her after a night of tequila and Twister in Melbourne.

Benjamin Esler, 37, is charged with rape over the alleged offence on April 13, 2019.

Mr Esler should not be confused with the Australian actor of the same name, who starred in Hell on Wheels and The Pacific.

At a committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday, Mr Esler’s lawyer Amelia Beech said he argued the oral sex was consensual and he “ardently denies putting his penis inside her vagina”.

The alleged victim had recently moved to Melbourne and the night of the alleged rape was the first time she had met Mr Esler.

Along with an associate of Mr Esler’s, the three of them drank a bottle of wine and three-quarters of a bottle of tequila before she went to bed, the court heard.

They had eaten a veggie stir-fry and played Cluedo and Twister.

Mr Esler and the alleged victim exchanged “jovial chitchat” and talked about “pivotal life experiences”, the other woman present told the court.

Mr Esler and the other woman went to bed together but she turned him down for sex, she said.

He put his clothes on and said he was leaving the house — before coming back into the bed and again asking her for sex, she said.

The court heard this happened three times before he left the woman’s bed for the remainder of the night.

“He said, ‘should I say goodbye to (the alleged victim?)’,” she said.

“I said, ‘No Ben, she’s asleep, leave her alone’.”

But he allegedly went into the victim’s room and told her to “surrender”.

The next thing the third woman remembered was “(the alleged victim) wailing, crawling into my bed”.

“It was an extraordinarily animated crying, like a wailing,” she said.

“She kept saying, ‘why did he come into my room’, and this wail.

“I asked her, ‘did he force himself on her?’ And she said ‘yes’. That was like getting hit by a bus.

“I was trying to soothe (her), she was hysterical.”

She said the alleged victim did not want to cancel breakfast plans the next day.

She went to the hospital about 2pm then spoke to police.

The woman said her relationship with the alleged victim became “volatile” and “vicious” afterwards.

“She was like a tornado of chaos and destruction,” she said.

“I was constantly being attacked by her for not supporting her enough.

“I question (her) integrity.”

Another witness told the court the alleged victim had been quiet and retreated from friends after the alleged rape.

“Some days she’s feeling strong and some days she’s feeling really not strong, and I think that’s normal,” the friend said.

The court proceeding determining if Mr Esler will be ordered to stand trial continues on Thursday.