Alleged rape victim referred to accused as ‘husband’, court told

Former Labor heavyweight Dave Hanna offered to help a woman, who referred to him as her ‘husband’, before he allegedly raped her.

Dave Hanna leaves the District Court in Brisbane. Picture: AAP

Former CFMEU and Labor powerbroker Dave Hanna offered to help a woman, who referred to him as her “husband”, find her handbag hours before he allegedly raped her, a court has heard.

The union boss, 54, facing trial for three charges of rape and for filming the woman’s genitalia without her permission, met her at the Eleven rooftop bar in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley shortly after midnight on March 4, 2017.

The woman, 30, who was described as being drunk, finished her testimony yesterday after being grilled on the witness stand for nearly two days over her recollection of the events.

Eleven security guard Jason Allison testified that after she was kicked out of Eleven for being intoxicated, the woman entered a taxi with Mr Hanna, only to exit a minute later when she realised she had lost her handbag.

“I suggested to them that as the woman was not allowed back into the venue, the man should go into the venue on her behalf and retrieve her handbag,” he said.

Mr Allison said he spoke with the woman, who was “off balance” and “slurring her words”, and tried to help her organise a way home. “She was referring to the man as her husband, saying she needed to talk to her husband and go home,” he said.

Mr Allison said he booked an Uber for the woman but she did not get in when it arrived.

“On arrival of the Uber, she refused to get in and continued to tell me her husband was upstairs and she needed her handbag ­before she could leave,” he said.

Tal Derhy, assistant venue manager of Eleven at the time, told the court he approached Mr Hanna inside the bar and asked whether he could speak with the woman, who ­appeared “dazed and confused”.

Mr Hanna allegedly told him “To be honest with you, this is the first night we’ve ever met”, but he agreed to speak with her.

Mr Derhy said Mr Hanna did not appear intoxicated and was “very calm, very accommodating to the situation”.

“He was very helpful,” Mr Derhy said. “He could have said no when we asked him to come down and he tried to figure out how to help.”

Mr Allison said Mr Hanna returned downstairs and offered to help the woman get home.

“They made the agreement he would assist her getting into her home and they would have a drink together,” he told the court.

Taxi driver Donald Braithwaite, who drove the couple home, told the jury he heard them discussing how they would get into the woman’s unit complex in the northern suburb of Taigum without a key. “He said he wanted to do the right thing by her,” Mr Braithwaite said.

Friends testified and showed screenshots of text and Facebook messages sent to them by the woman about 2.25am, saying “save me” and “please help me”.

Senior Constable Michael Orth said he attended the woman’s unit in the morning after she called police after 9am.

“She said she felt uncomfortable and asked the male to leave … several times,” he said.