Well-connected Melbourne man found guilty of raping former staffer

A well-connected Melbourne man has been found guilty of raping a former employee. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faced two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault in the County Court of Victoria. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges.

After a three-week trial, the jury delivered a guilty verdict on all counts on Tuesday, following deliberations that began late Friday morning. The judge immediately revoked the man's bail and remanded him in custody. Sentencing will take place at a later date.

The assault occurred in March 2023. The victim testified that she spent the evening drinking and taking cocaine with the man, listening to music and watching football at his friend's home.

Both the prosecution and the defence agreed that the most crucial witness was the alleged victim – the man's former personal assistant. She gave evidence over more than four days in a closed court. The accused did not testify during the trial.

Judge Frank Gucciardo thanked the jury for their commitment after the verdict. "Those of us who have worked with juries for a very long time genuinely believe it's the best system for determining matters like these," he said.

Prosecutor Matthew Fisher argued that given the likely significant custodial sentence, the man should be taken into custody. In his closing address, Fisher said some inconsistencies in the woman's evidence actually proved her credibility, as they showed she had not fabricated the story.

Defence barrister Dermot Dann KC described that as a "desperate submission" and argued that the prosecution had asked the jury to accept a "horrible mixture of lies, fabrications, inconsistencies [and] evidence that has been shown to be demonstrably untrue."

The judge told the jury before they retired that the case was not about consent, as the defence maintained that no sexual contact had occurred.

At the start of the trial, Fisher said the offences took place when the woman was at the man's house, where he tried to kiss her and sexually assaulted her. She pushed his hands away and said "I don't want this," to which the man responded with comments like "You're so sexy," "I can't sleep, help me," and "I need this."

The woman then felt the man rape her twice. "She turned around to face him, and at that point she punched him with her fist to his face, to his nose," Fisher told the court. "He grabbed his face and said words to the effect of 'you've broken my nose.' She got out of bed and said to him: 'You're a f**king rapist.'"

The woman went to another room and started taking notes on her phone about what happened, before texting her mother. Her mother called the police despite the woman's reluctance to involve them. Police arrived at the property around 3 am on 24 March 2023.

Police spoke to the woman, and the conversation was recorded on a body-worn camera. The footage of that 35-minute exchange was shown to the jury.

During the trial, the defence denied all allegations. Dann pointed out that the woman claimed she stayed in the house after the alleged offences. He also said she was reluctant to contact authorities because of a prior false allegation involving police, and questioned why she had raised the issue of "recompense" with her mother while still at the man's house.

The court also heard from two of the man's friends, who saw him and the woman in the hours before the offences, as well as another former personal assistant and a friend of the alleged victim. Two men – a former colleague and a barrister who met the accused while serving on the board of a prominent Melbourne organisation – gave character evidence.