High-profile Victorian man pretended to be mate when raping woman, court hears
A high-profile Victorian man — who cannot be named for legal reasons — pretended to be his mate when he raped a woman before engaging in a deceptive cover-up, a Melbourne court has heard.
A high-profile man pretended to be his mate when he raped a woman before doctoring an Uber receipt in a “deceptive” cover-up, a jury has heard.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is standing trial in the County Court, accused of raping a woman twice inside a Melbourne home in January last year.
He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape, claiming that the complainant “got it wrong”.
On the first day of the trial on Monday, Crown prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams opened his case by declaring the rapes were committed “not through threats, not through force, not through the use of any additional violence, but rather, initially at least, through deception”.
The jury heard the complainant attended the accused’s home late on a summer night after she was invited over by the accused’s girlfriend.
A boozy gathering had been hosted at the home that day, but only the accused, his girlfriend and his mate, Mr B*, remained when the complainant arrived at 12.23am.
Mr McWilliams said the complainant, who was in a “casual sexual relationship” with Mr B, had consensual sex with him in an upstairs bedroom.
At 1.58am, Mr B left in an Uber, arriving at his home at 2.09am.
“He did not return to the house … and he did not return to the bedroom where the complainant was after he left,” Mr McWilliams said.
But after his departure, the accused allegedly crept into the bedroom and lied to the complainant, telling her the Uber had been cancelled and Mr B would be back upstairs soon.
Mr McWilliams said the accused left the room and then re-entered again, but because it was dark, she assumed it was Mr B.
The accused allegedly slid into the bed behind the woman and digitally penetrated her, prompting her to say “wait, stop” before wriggling away.
Mr McWilliams said she became “very concerned” that it was the accused in bed with her, prompting her to ask if he was Mr B.
“Yeah, it’s me, why wouldn’t it be?” the accused allegedly said.
“You sound a lot like (the accused),” she replied.
Not convinced, she asked him to turn on his phone torch.
“The accused then put his hands on the complainant, took hold of her and put his fingers inside her vagina again,” Mr McWilliams said.
The jury heard she repeatedly asked the accused to stop.
“Don’t worry, it’s (Mr B), it’s fine,” the accused allegedly told her.
Mr McWilliams said she knew it was the accused because he had a different haircut to Mr B, which she both felt and saw as he fled the bedroom.
But he re-entered again soon after, allegedly asking her: “You okay, what’s happened?”
She replied: “You were just in here. I know it was you. You’re the only guy in the house.”
At 2.15am, she messaged Mr B, who confirmed he had arrived home.
The next day, the accused allegedly used his laptop to alter an Uber receipt he had asked Mr B to send him.
“The fabricated, deceptive Uber receipt … suggests that it is the receipt of a trip taken by (Mr B) … from the accused’s house with a booking time of 2.33am, a pick-up time of 2.37am and dropping him off at 2.57am,” Mr McWilliams said.
But he reminded the jury that the evidence of the real receipt would show that Mr B was dropped off at 2.09am.
He said it was doctored to “create a deception” that Mr B was at the home for longer than he was and the accused was not responsible for the rape.
The accused later texted Mr B: “When she sent you that message asking if you were home, what time was that? Just say you came into her room when your Uber cancelled, I don’t know what’s going on, but I just want to make sure (her) lies don’t f--k us up.”
After making a complaint to police, the woman agreed to speak to the accused while detectives recorded their phone call.
The accused told her it was a “really drunk” Mr B who came back into the bedroom and sexually penetrated her.
He added that it would be a “real reassurance” for everyone if she would “move on with her life and forget about it”.
But Mr McWilliams said it was the prosecution case that the accused sexually penetrated her “without her consent” and then “attempted to avoid accountability, with even more deception”.
But his defence barrister David Hallowes SC said his client denied the allegations, which would be “hotly contested” over the course of the two-week trial.
He said the complainant “got it wrong” when she said the accused slid into the bed and penetrated her because it simply “did not happen”.
“Maybe she’s just got it wrong for all sorts of reasons,” he said.
Mr Hallowes said one of the “key issues” would be whether or not Mr B returned to the bedroom before catching the Uber.
“There’s no suggestion that he returned after he got the Uber,” he confirmed.
He argued that his client may have panicked when he was wrongly accused of rape, leading him to fabricate the Uber receipt.
The accused observed the trial from the dock in the back of the courtroom.
The complainant is set to give evidence in closed court on Tuesday.
The trial, before Judge Gregory Lyon, continues.
*Not his real name
Originally published as High-profile Victorian man pretended to be mate when raping woman, court hears
