Drunken revelation ‘totally changed’ alleged victim’s attitude to making a complaint

A WOMAN who was allegedly raped by former NT Police Assistant Commissioner Peter Bravos ‘totally changed’ her attitude to making a complaint about the incident following a drunken revelation at a dinner party in 2017, a court has heard

Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker outside the Supreme Court on Friday. Picture Glenn Campbell

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A WOMAN who was allegedly raped by former NT Police Assistant Commissioner Peter Bravos “totally changed” her attitude to making a complaint about the incident following a drunken revelation at a dinner party in 2017, a court has heard.

Bravos is facing trial in the Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to two counts of raping a fellow police officer after the pair went back to his house following an emergency services ball in 2004.

On Friday, Detective Sergeant Annette Cooper told the court she hosted a dinner party in 2017 for a number of people after which one woman stayed back late into the night and continued drinking.

She said the intoxicated woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told her “he did that to her” because of a betting book of sexual conquests rumoured to be circulating in the drug squad while Bravos was a member, which placed odds on sleeping with fellow officers.

“She said it was about the black book, ‘Have you heard about the black book?’ and I’d never heard about a black book,” she said.

“She said it was to do with (the woman) being 70 to one … because (she) was married with kids and it was considered difficult to get her into the sack.”

Sgt Cooper said she rang the woman the next day and told her what she’d heard and as a result the woman “totally changed her view” about making a complaint, now believing the incident was “basically predatory”.

“Prior to that she had always said ‘No, I don’t want to make a complaint’ but she hung up from that conversation saying ‘I need to think about this long and hard’,” she said.

“She called me back and said ‘I’ve really thought about it, that means it was deliberate, absolutely deliberate’.

“(She said) ‘What he did to me was deliberate and I’m going to do something about that finally’.”

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Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker also took the stand on Friday, telling the court then-Commissioner Reece Kershaw had tasked him with arranging a criminal investigation into the allegations in 2015, prompted by an article in the NT News .

But Mr Chalker said the investigation, headed by a Victorian QC, went nowhere after the woman declined to be interviewed or make a formal complaint.

The trial continues on Monday.