Airman who allegedly tried to rape his Tinder date’s sleeping housemate faces trial in Darwin

A DARWIN airman, who allegedly tried to rape his Tinder date’s sleeping housemate when the other woman was too tired for sex, has faced the first day of his trial in the Supreme Court

Renju Reghunath, 35, outside the Supreme Court in Darwin. He has pleaded not guilty to attempted rape

A DARWIN airman who allegedly tried to rape his Tinder date’s sleeping housemate when the other woman was too tired for sex has faced the first day of his trial in the Supreme Court.

Renju Reghunath, 35, pleaded not guilty on Monday to one count of attempted rape after matching with the woman’s housemate on the dating app in July 2018.

Prosecutor Tami Grealy told jurors Reghunath met up with his Tinder date in the early evening of July 27 before they went back to her Rapid Creek unit for consensual sex.

Ms Grealy said Reghunath’s date dropped him back at the RAAF base in Winnellie but they met up again at Monsoons later that night and he drove her home at about 2am.

She said the woman would give evidence that she made her bed and kissed Reghunath but then fell asleep, telling him “No, I’m too tired”.

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Ms Grealy said Reghunath’s date’s housemate would tell the jury she first woke up when the pair came home to find a man standing at the end of her bed and she told him to get out and he left.

“You’ll also hear that (she) was woken again at about 3.10am, she woke to find a man on top of her holding down her left arm and using his other hand to pull aside her underwear,” she said.

“She’ll describe pushing him off and saying ‘Get out of my room’ and the man standing by her door for a good five seconds while (she) sat on her bed.”

The woman texted her housemate to tell her what happened and when she woke up she asked him if he’d been into the other woman’s room and he repeatedly apologised as she drove him back to the base.

But defence barrister Mary Chalmers said Reghunath would also give evidence and tell jurors he simply walked into the wrong room “in the middle of the night in a strange flat by mistake”.

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“I suggest you will not be bothering yourself too much about issues of consent but whether what (the woman) said happened in her room really happened at all or whether it’s a case of exaggeration or gilding the lily,” she said.

The trial continues on Tuesday.

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