A high-profile man allegedly touched a woman’s breast after she woke up in his bed naked following a night at his home, a court has heard.
The woman is the second complainant out of six to appear before the NSW Downing Centre district court in a trial expected to last 10 weeks. She follows the first complainant who alleged the man had raped her while she was his intern.
The woman – known as complainant two and who was 21 at the time she alleges the man indecently assaulted her by touching her breast – told the court that she had gone to the man’s house whose work she “admired” in the mid-2010s and while there, they took MDMA.
The drug had made her feel “euphoric”, she told the court, and later she started to feel “overwhelmed” and had to lie down and take deep breaths.
“At some point I just laid down and I shut my eyes and I woke up in his bed,” she said.
She alleges after she woke up, she realised both she and the man were naked, and he then touched her breast. “I said ‘I don’t want to do that’… And then I realised I wasn’t wearing my bra or undies,” the woman recalled for the court. She alleged the man then told her his girlfriend would be visiting his home soon and she had to leave.
The accused, whom Guardian Australia cannot name due to a suppression order, is facing trial after pleading not guilty to 12 charges – which include six counts of rape – alleged to have occurred over a six-year period against six women on separate occasions.
The crown is arguing the man had a tendency to carry out sexual conduct with usually much younger females, knowing that they did not consent or that he was reckless to their consent.
The man’s defence contends there was no sexual contact “whatsoever” with complainant two. His defence argues there was sex with the five other women who have alleged they were raped. However, his defence argues, the sex was consensual, “not in the circumstances alleged by the crown”, and that the complainants “admired the accused, even idolised him”.
Complainant two told the court that she and the man had connected through Instagram after she had tagged him in a post. They then connected on the platform and chatted about how she was “getting back into” the industry he was part of.
The woman alleged he then invited her to see his house.
Before doing the MDMA, the woman said she had smoked a joint she brought with her to calm her nerves.
Under cross-examination, the man’s defence counsel David Scully SC asked if it was possible she had also taken a Xanax to calm her nerves.
She said she did use Xanax to relax and that she had bad anxiety, but asserted she did not take any that evening.
“I brought a joint, that was it,” she told the court.
Scully also suggested to the woman that it was her idea that they both do MDMA.
“No, he wanted to do MDMA,” she said.
The court heard on Tuesday that after the complainant was “feeling the effects of the MDMA a lot” she asked for water, and the man returned with a clear liquid in a martini glass and said, “Here’s your special drink.” After that, she said: “I started to get overwhelmed and I’d have to lay down and take deep breaths.”
Asked by Scully if she thought it was “odd” the man called it a “special drink”, she responded: “I have autism I don’t pick up on social queues.”
He later questioned why the detail of the “special drink” wasn’t included in her police statement, to which she responded: “I pushed down the memories.”
The woman told the court the next thing she remembered was waking up in his bed at “morning time”. They were both naked in the bed, and he then touched her breast, she said.
Under cross-examination on Wednesday, Scully pointed out that the woman had sent a text to a friend at 5.27am of herself smoking a joint, an hour and a half before the sun came up. He suggested that she had in fact left the man’s house at around 5am and had “fabricated” her story.
“It is just a complete and utter fabrication isn’t it,” Scully asked.
“No it’s not, I was there,” complainant two responded.
Scully also questioned the complainant on her timing of reporting the incident to police given it came after media reports that the man had been charged with sexual offences. She then posted to her social media that she had reported it, and later spoke to media, the court heard.
The woman also contacted another complainant in the court case, the court heard. She had asked her if she was involved and told her not to tell her anything because it could be considered “collusion”. The court heard the two complainants then had a video chat for 25 minutes.
On Tuesday, under questioning from crown prosecutor Adrian Robertson, the woman was asked about a message exchange she had with a friend she was romantically interested in and communicating with the day after the incident.
In telling the friend about the night before at the man’s house, she said that she had had a “fun night”, and that the man had given her a book. She also said that the man “didn’t try to fuck me”.
“Why did you write that?” Robertson asked.
“I didn’t want [the friend] to think I’m not cool,” the woman responded.
The trial continues. The witness remains on the stand, under cross-examination from defence counsel.
