High-profile Melbourne man to stand trial over rape

The Herald Sun can reveal a high-profile Melbourne man has been committed to stand trial for the rape of a woman after a gag order banning any reporting of his case was partially lifted on Thursday.

After further hearings in the County Court, the gag order on the case was partially lifted. Picture: Diego Fedele

A high-profile Melbourne man has been committed to stand trial for the rape of a woman.

The Herald Sun can reveal the man is charged with four serious sexual offences after a gag order banning any reporting of his case was partially lifted on Thursday.

But restrictions remain in place prohibiting identifying the man due to concerns about how media reporting naming him would affect his mental health.

Details of the allegations were revealed at a committal hearing earlier this year, including that the woman called police to the man’s Melbourne home about 3.40am on March 23 last year.

When she opened the front door, the court heard police believed she appeared “impaired” and “there were two lines of cocaine”.

“Should I speak to a lawyer?” the man asked police, while denying wrongdoing.

The Melbourne Magistrates’ Court heard the woman had agreed that the man could “sleep in bed with her” before there was “alleged non-consensual touching of breast that proceeded to digital-vaginal and penile-vaginal penetration”.

The Melbourne Magistrates’ Court heard the woman had agreed that the man could “sleep in bed with her” before there was “alleged non-consensual” activity. Picture: David Crosling

The woman’s mother called police after receiving a text from her daughter claiming she’d been raped and that she’d “held my own during the event despite multiple times telling him I wasn’t interested”.

The alleged victim later told authorities she’d punched the man, causing a red mark to her right hand.

Police later searched the man’s home where they pulled his unwashed underwear and jeans from the washing machine and stripped his bed of its doona cover, fitted sheet and four pillow cases.

The man was charged with two counts of rape, one of sexual assault and one of attempted rape in August last year.

His case was suppressed in December after he won a gag order, first banning his identity from being revealed, then prohibiting any reporting of his case.

The man called four medical experts in support of his application claiming he was so traumatised from his arrest – where he spent four hours in a cell – that he suffered PTSD.

He said media reporting would further damage his mental health, later telling a psychologist his case could be printed on the front page if he were found guilty.

The Office of Public Prosecutions, the Herald Sun and other media fought against the gag order, but were unsuccessful.

After further hearings in the County Court, the order was partially lifted on Thursday to allow reporting on the case but prohibiting naming the man.

The order will end at the conclusion of the man’s trial, which is expected to take place next year.

The committal hearing in June heard the policeman who charged the man had told the OPP he was “not supportive of a suppression order”.

“Whilst I may not be doing a media release, part of the accused’s offending includes his arrogance as a person of status and I’m opposed to his status being gifted with anonymity,” Senior Constable Joshua Guy said in an email to the OPP.

“I do not believe he should be granted special treatment by the courts.”

On the night of the alleged rape, the court heard the man and the woman had been at his mate’s place watching AFL where she had a few glasses of wine and he dozed off on the couch after one glass.

She later recorded a BAC of .157 with less than .01 micrograms per litre of cocaine in her blood.

After the game, the woman texted her mother saying she was at the man’s home and that she “loved being at (his) house”.

“Certainly an impressive house,” replied her mother, who said she’d seen a video of the home.

That was her last text message with her mother until 12.45am the next morning when her daughter sent her a lengthy message that ran over a number of pages where she alleged she’d been raped.

“I held my own during the event despite multiple times telling him I wasn’t interested,” she wrote.

“When it was happening I closed my eyes and pretended it was not happening,” she wrote.

“I can’t go with the police, I trust the police less than (the man), police have hurt me more than (he) has.”

The man was committed for trial in the County Court. Picture: David Crosling

In her message to her mother, the woman said she was “safe” and in the spare room and that she’d “told (the man) I wanted to stay here because I wanted recompense for what had happened”.

“I told him I love him for his spirit but it was explicitly not sexual, I opened up to him about my abusive past and believed he cared about me and wanted to nurture me,” she wrote.

The mother called triple-0 at 2.30am to report a rape, stating her daughter may have been drunk or drug affected and “I felt she was vulnerable and needed to get out”.

Police called the victim directly at 2.51am but she said she “wasn’t in danger, safe in the spare room and trying to resolve the matter on her own”.

But she called police back at 3.40am providing the man’s address, with police arriving just five minutes later.

The man was arrested and taken to the police station where he spent four hours in a cell before giving a no comment record of interview following advice from a lawyer.

The woman undertook a self administered rape kit, then underwent a forensic procedure, with DNA a part of the case.

Her mother, who gave evidence in court, said her daughter had detailed a previous “incident” where the man “made a pass at her” in his house while they were working together “that she refused”.

Asked why her daughter continued to work with the man after this incident, she said “because he had respected what she said at that time and she felt safer”.

The man pleaded not guilty to all four charges on June 20 and was committed for trial in the County Court.

He remains on bail with the condition he remains living at his Melbourne home and advises police of any travel plans interstate within 24 hours.

He will return to court next year.

Originally published as High-profile Melbourne man to stand trial over rape