by The woman who alleges she was raped by a high-profile Sydney man while she was his intern has claimed she “managed” to reject his sexual advances more than once to make the sex “more natural”. – consensual”, heard a court. .
Under cross-examination, defense barrister David Scully SC drew on the woman – who was 19 at the time she was allegedly raped by the man in his mid-30s – on apparent inconsistencies between police statements she had given over six years. after the alleged incident occurred. and evidence given to the court on Tuesday.
Scully questioned why she told the court she said “no” many times during the alleged rape but did not mention this in her police statement.
“I believe there was more said, but I understand it’s not in my statement,” the woman, known only as the plaintiff, told the court.
The woman appeared before the NSW Downing Center district court for a second day on Thursday, the third day of the trial which is expected to last 10 weeks. The man accused of her alleged rape, who Guardian Australia cannot name due to a suppression order, is on trial after pleading not guilty to 12 charges – including six counts of rape – which allegedly took place over a period of six years against six women. on specific occasions.
Related: Woman claims she was asked to catalog sex tapes before high-profile Sydney man raped her, court heard
The crown is arguing that the man tended to engage in sexual behavior with women usually much younger, knowing they did not consent or that he was reckless with their consent.
The man’s defense argues that he had sex with five of the women who alleged rape, including one complainant. However, his defense argues that the sex was consensual, “not in the circumstances alleged by the crown”, and that “the complainants respected the accused, even idolized him”.
In the woman’s statement to the police, she alleged that she said “no” to the man. It states that when he allegedly began to rub her legs between her thighs and before he raped her, she told him: “This [internship] it’s a work thing [and] I don’t want to do that.” Her statement alleged the man then replied: “Something because it’s fine, it doesn’t change anything.”
“In my mind I was clear that I did not want to have sex with him,” she wrote in the statement, adding that there was no “mutual involvement” during the alleged rape and that she was “just lying there and it was frozen”.
Scully pressed the woman why in this statement to the police, and another she made four months later, she did not mention additional information that she told the court. Especially since the man allegedly put his arm around her to pull her back after she tried to pull back.
“You’re making that up aren’t you?” Scully asked the woman during cross-examination.
“No,” she replied.
Scully then asked her if what she put “in the way” was to “try to make it more non-consensual” and support her version of events.
“No,” she replied.
Asked earlier in cross-examination if the police statement was a “full account of what happened” as far as she could tell, she said it was at that point.
“I spoke to the police officer in charge and I did [it] very obviously it was a long time ago and also something I never talked about and wasn’t very comfortable expressing so it was [to] in my capacity at that point,” she told the court.
The woman was asked if what she had in mind when she was “having sex” with the man was that he could help her get ahead in the industry, and she did not answer. She was then asked if it was “part of” her thinking at other “relevant times”.
“When we had a professional relationship, yes … But when I was being raped, no, I wasn’t thinking about that,” she said.
Scully testified in cross-examination that it was the second time the woman alleged that the man raped her – about “four or five months” after the first incident during a visit to her workplace. – it was consensual. But the woman was sure it wasn’t. This incident is not part of the charges against the man.
He also questioned her about a video shown to the court on Wednesday which showed her dancing around his workplace during her visit wearing a suit. The woman alleged that the man gave her the outfit to try on before she was attacked.
Scully confirmed that the video – which shows her “laughing and smiling and playing guitar” – was taken after she alleged she was assaulted, and not before, and that she was in a “good mood”. But she confirmed that the video was taken before.
Earlier in the cross-examination, the woman was asked why she visited the man on another occasion.
“It’s a very good question. As I have said many times I think I was confused. I was very young. I wished so badly that it was what I thought it was, a working relationship, someone to guide me. But it wasn’t,” she said.
The trial continues. The witness remains on the stand, under cross-examination by defense counsel.
