{"id":816074,"date":"2026-07-22T07:41:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T07:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/816074\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T07:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T07:41:14","slug":"alleged-rape-victim-could-have-done-a-lot-better-if-she-had-made-up-claims-against-well-connected-melbourne-man-court-told-victoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/816074\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleged rape victim \u2018could have done a lot better\u2019 if she had made up claims against well-connected Melbourne man, court told | Victoria"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman who accused a well-connected Melbourne man of rape \u201ccould have done a much better job\u201d if she was inventing the story for money, a Melbourne court has heard.<\/p>\n

But the accused\u2019s lawyer has described the prosecution\u2019s case as a \u201chorrendous mixture\u201d of \u201clies, fabrications, inconsistencies, [and] evidence that has been found to be demonstrably untrue\u201d.<\/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.<\/p>\n

It is alleged by the prosecution that 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The accused did not give evidence during the trial and the alleged victim gave evidence before a closed court.<\/p>\n

The man\u2019s lawyer, Dermot Dann KC, has told the court the alleged offending never occurred.<\/p>\n

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In his final address to the jury, prosecutor Matthew Fisher said the case came down to six key aspects.<\/p>\n

These included the evidence of the complainant; what happened immediately after the alleged incident, including that she was at the accused\u2019s house when police arrived and was captured speaking to them on a body-worn camera; and her alleged motive to lie.<\/p>\n

Fisher said trauma did \u201cstrange things\u201d to memory and accounts of sexual assault often differed. He said, however, that the complainant had not wavered in her description of what happened to her in accounts to her mother, police and a doctor in the 24 hours after the alleged incident.<\/p>\n

He said the jury may also consider there is some \u201ccomplexity\u201d to her personality, given her demeanour while she gave evidence, though that did not mean she was lying about the allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI concede there were some gaps, some differences, some inconsistencies in her evidence, she was cross-examined for a number of hours about all of those things,\u201d Fisher said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Dann is a very experienced barrister, he is a very good barrister.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite all of that cross-examination she remained adamant about the alleged offending: \u2018This happened. This is what he did to me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Fisher said these inconsistencies actually underlined the truthfulness of the alleged victim.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she really wanted to make all this up \u2026 she could have done a better job. Could have done a lot better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe would have been clear and consistent, from start to finish, if this was \u2026 part of this masterplan to get the accused in trouble, or get some money from him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe existence of some gaps or inconsistencies \u2026 enhances her credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fisher said that the complainant\u2019s interactions with other witnesses, including a former friend<\/a>, and two friends of the accused who spent part of the evening before the alleged incident with them, were also a key aspect of the case.<\/p>\n

Another aspect was the complainant\u2019s relationship with police. The court heard on Tuesday from two police who were involved in pulling the complainant over for drink-driving in 2019.<\/p>\n

The complainant accused one of the officers of saying to her \u201cI love getting little sluts like you off the road\u201d in a complaint she made to police in 2022.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the officers both denied making the comment. This previous experience with police was referred to by the complainant on the night of the alleged rape as a reason she did not want to report the matter to the authorities, despite the urgings of her mother.<\/p>\n

Fisher criticised the evidence of the senior officer, Det Sen Cons David Barlow, saying that he was \u201cloose\u201d and \u201cuntrue\u201d, and that the jury could find he had made the comment to the complainant.<\/p>\n

He said that while Dann had repeatedly accused the complainant of lying under oath, it was Barlow who the jury should find was untruthful.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of them is lying under oath,\u201d Fisher said.<\/p>\n

In his closing address, Dann said that asking the jury to swallow the \u201chorrendous mixture\u201d served up to them by the prosecution was enough to make them sick.<\/p>\n

He said that although the trial started with the prosecution needing to prove his client\u2019s guilt beyond reasonable doubt, they had \u201cactually gone backwards\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dann described the complainant as \u201ca fiction writer\u201d and outlined what he claimed were more than 20 separate lies to the jury, including the \u201cmiracle\u201d of how she said the alleged rape occurred, how she punched him shortly afterwards, her retelling of the falling out with a close friend who had also worked with the accused and the events leading up to the alleged rape.<\/p>\n

The trial continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman who accused a well-connected Melbourne man of rape \u201ccould have done a much better job\u201d if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-816074","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\/816074","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=816074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}