A women who alleges she was raped by a high-profile Sydney man told her mother about a different encounter when he allegedly threw her “across the room by her neck”, a court has heard.
The mother of the woman – the fifth complainant to appear in a sexual offences trial – appeared before the New South Wales Downing Centre district court as a witness in Monday. The alleged assault involving the woman’s neck – for which the man has not been charged – was said to have occurred during a visit to his home on an occasion after he allegedly raped her.
“She told me that she had been assaulted,” the mother told the court. “She told me about the incident when it had just happened and her voice was very distant and I could feel she was in shock.
“She told me she had been thrown across the room by her neck by the accused, and I asked her how she was, of course, and she said she had a sore neck and I encouraged her to ring the police as soon as she could.”
The man, whom Guardian Australia cannot name due to a suppression order, is on 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. He also faces a charge of threatening to distribute an intimate video of complainant five.
The crown has argued that the man had a tendency to seek sex with much younger women, allegedly knowing that they did not consent or being reckless as to their consent.
The defence has argued that consensual sex took place – “not in the circumstances alleged by the crown” – and that the complainants had “admired the accused, even idolised him”.
Under cross-examination by the accused’s defence counsel, David Scully SC, the fifth complainant’s mother was asked to describe the conversation she had with her daughter in the lead-up to the mother providing police a statement about the alleged assault.
“I said to her: I remember very vividly the night she rang me with the details and that was basically it,” the complainant’s mother responded.
Last week, while the complainant was under cross-examination, Scully put to the woman that the accused never “touched her throat”. She disagreed with this.
The mother told the court that her daughter had a friendship with the accused but she suspected her daughter would have liked “something closer”.
Last week the complainant told the court that on the day the accused allegedly raped her, she had been at a party. After exchanging texts with the accused, he had picked her up in his car and taken her to his home, the court heard.
On a later occasion, the woman travelled with another friend to Sydney to visit the accused. The court heard they had engaged in consensual group sex during the visit and that he had allegedly grabbed her by the throat in anger on another day during the same trip.
The court heard last week that, before the trip to visit the accused was arranged, the complainant had sent a picture of her and a friend naked to him “out of the blue”. The complainant told the court the accused had then bought her flights to visit him after they connected via a video call.
On Monday a witness appearing before the court who was friends with the accused, on the video call and present for about two days of the complainant’s visit, said the woman had paid for her flights.
The witness told the court under questioning from the crown that the complainant had became upset “multiple times” during the visit after the accused was not receptive to the complainant’s “urge” for a closer connection with him.
The witness told the court it had gone “pear-shaped” after they went to a club. The witness said she believed there was “maybe a bit of rejection” from the accused and that he was interacting more with the friend than the complainant.
Last week the complainant told the court that the accused had become “angry” with her at the club and she had gone to his house the next day find out why.
The next morning, after they had slept in a bed together, the complainant said she had awoken to construction noise and had given “a little laugh because it was really annoying”. She claimed he had then grabbed her by the throat.
Under cross-examination, Scully asked the witness if during the visit to Sydney the complainant had been “desperate to get attention” from the accused.
“A lot … It was so much that I was commenting on it,” she responded.
Scully then asked the witness if, when the complainant “couldn’t get attention, she was sooking and snarling about it”.
“Very much so, it was like a tantrum, it was very childish,” she said.
The trial continues.
