{"id":805747,"date":"2026-07-17T08:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/805747\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T08:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:49:11","slug":"alleged-rape-victim-wanted-to-take-well-connected-melbourne-man-for-all-that-hes-worth-court-hears-victoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/805747\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleged rape victim wanted to take well-connected Melbourne man for \u2018all that he\u2019s worth\u2019, court hears | Victoria"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cousin of a woman who accused a well-connected man of rape told a witness that the alleged victim had the same legal team as Grace Tame and would take him for \u201call that he\u2019s worth\u201d, a Melbourne<\/a> court has heard.<\/p>\n

The man, who cannot be named, faces two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, and has pleaded not guilty in Victoria\u2019s county court.<\/p>\n

The alleged offences occurred in March 2023 after the woman \u2013 a former personal assistant for the accused \u2013 said she spent an evening drinking and taking cocaine with him, while listening to music and watching the football at his friend\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s alleged by the prosecution that, at the end of the night, the woman was at the man\u2019s house when he tried to kiss her and sexually assaulted her. He then allegedly raped her twice, the trial previously heard.<\/p>\n

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On Friday, the trial heard evidence from another former personal assistant of the man, who told the court she had a falling out with the alleged victim after the witness refused to take her to drinks with the man in November 2021.<\/p>\n

The row in a Melbourne hotel culminated in the alleged victim throwing her cutlery on the table and screaming \u201chow dare you do this to me\u201d and \u201cjust one drink, just one drink with [him], why won\u2019t you give me just one drink\u201d, the witness told police. The pair have not spoken since, the witness said in court.<\/p>\n

Under questioning from the man\u2019s barrister, Dermot Dann KC, the witness agreed that she formed the opinion that night that the woman was \u201ctrying to force her way\u201d into the accused\u2019s world, life or business.<\/p>\n

The witness also denied claims that Dann said the alleged victim had made in her evidence, which was given in closed court.<\/p>\n

This evidence, Dann said, included that the witness regularly drank with the accused socially while she was employed with him, that she had a video of him shouting in the workplace and had shown it to the alleged victim, and that she felt unsafe around him.<\/p>\n

The witness said that in April 2023 she was contacted by the police informant in the case, Det Sen Const Joshua Guy, who told her about the allegations.<\/p>\n

After this conversation, but before she made a police statement, she said she had spoken to a cousin of the alleged victim, the court heard.<\/p>\n

She was told the alleged victim had the same six lawyers as Grace Tame and would be \u201ctaking [the accused] for all that he\u2019s worth\u201d.<\/p>\n

Police responded to reports of \u2018disturbance\u2019<\/p>\n

Friends of the man also gave evidence about watching the football with him and the alleged victim, hours before the alleged offending. The couple hosted the alleged victim and the accused at their property in South Melbourne, the court heard.<\/p>\n

The alleged victim had her hand on the man\u2019s thigh while watching the match, the witnesses told the court on Friday, with one describing the act as \u201ca public display of affection\u201d.<\/p>\n

The man left with the alleged victim after he was seen nodding off while watching the game, his friend told the court.<\/p>\n

The court has previously heard<\/a> the alleged victim said she punched the man in the face after the alleged rape.<\/p>\n

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\u201c[The accused] grabbed his face and said words to the effect of \u2018you\u2019ve broken my nose\u2019,\u201d prosecutor Matthew Fisher told the court during his opening address. \u201cShe got out of bed and said to him \u2018you\u2019re a fucking rapist\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman went to another room and started taking notes of what happened on her phone, before texting her mother, who called the police despite her daughter\u2019s reluctance to involve them, the court had heard.<\/p>\n

On Friday, two police officers who attended the accused\u2019s house gave evidence.<\/p>\n

Det Sen Con James Redman agreed with Dann that the man did not appear to have any facial injuries at the time.<\/p>\n

He also agreed the man was friendly and cooperative while police were at his house, and that he largely spoke with him about the accused\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very charming, charismatic man,\u201d Redman told the court.<\/p>\n

He also agreed he told the man that police had attended the property because of reports of a \u201cdisturbance\u201d.<\/p>\n

A couple of hours earlier, Redman said he spoke to the alleged victim on the phone before police arrived at the man\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

He told the court that she told him she was not in any danger and was safe in a spare room at the house, and was trying to resolve \u201cthese matters\u201d on her own.<\/p>\n

The trial continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cousin of a woman who accused a well-connected man of rape told a witness that the alleged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-805747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}