{"id":845933,"date":"2026-08-06T19:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T19:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/845933\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T19:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T19:32:08","slug":"terrifying-creepy-abusive-dozens-of-women-who-worked-for-convicted-rapist-ralph-carr-speak-out-melbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/845933\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Terrifying\u2019, \u2018creepy\u2019, \u2018abusive\u2019: dozens of women who worked for convicted rapist Ralph Carr speak out | Melbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 22 October 2018, Mahalia Swinfield hit send on the email she had been drafting in her head for weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe daily bullying, and constant abuse I, and many others, have been subject to is no longer worth it,\u201d she wrote to her boss of three years. \u201cPlease see this as notice of my resignation effective immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

The boss in question was Ralph Carr, a high-profile Melbourne talent manager who was last month found guilty of raping a former employee<\/a> in 2023. Through his company Ralph Carr Management, Carr once represented some of the biggest names in Australian pop music, including Kate Ceberano, Vanessa Amorosi and Tina Arena, whom he married while she was signed to him (they divorced and ended their professional relationship in 1999).<\/p>\n

A suppression order on Carr\u2019s name was lifted on Monday and the Guardian can now reveal that dozens of women who worked for RCM accuse him of verbally abusive and intimidating behaviour dating back to the 90s. A number also accuse him of sexual harassment.<\/p>\n

Mahalia Swinfield\u2019s resignation email <\/p>\n

Swinfield was 24 when he hired her in 2015. She had been warned of his fearsome reputation, she says, but jobs in the music industry were difficult to come by and she thought she was tough enough to take it.<\/p>\n

What she didn\u2019t know was that for three decades, according to almost 30 sources interviewed by Guardian Australia, Carr had been using his power to bully, verbally abuse and sexually harass women who worked for him.<\/p>\n

Several former employees, all women, have come forward with allegations of a toxic workplace, describing Carr as \u201cterrifying\u201d, \u201ccreepy\u201d, \u201cabusive\u201d and \u201cintimidating\u201d.<\/p>\n

Five, including Swinfield, have made allegations of inappropriate sexual comments or advances, and others believe their time working for Carr resulted in psychological damage \u2013 panic attacks, anxiety and a general loss in confidence \u2013 which for some still persists today.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour behaviour is repeatedly degrading, belittling, and humiliating,\u201d Swinfield wrote in her resignation letter.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the Guardian, Carr\u2019s legal representative said Carr \u201csternly denies these dated claims\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, they come at a time where it would be inappropriate to comment further. Mr Carr maintains his innocence for the County Court matter in the strongest possible terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mahalia Swinfield: \u2018I hated bringing these young girls in that had these really amazing thoughts of what the industry was, and were then confronted by him.\u2019 Photograph: Jordan Johnson<\/p>\n

RCM has recently lost most of its high-profile clients but had continued to manage a small number of AFL<\/a> players, most notably the former star Richmond midfielder Dustin Martin.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Monday, Martin said he was \u201cshocked\u201d to learn of the rape convictions. \u201cEffective immediately, I have ended my professional relationship with my former manager,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018He would back you into a corner\u2019<\/p>\n

On the second floor of a building on Lennox Street, in the Melbourne<\/a> suburb of Richmond, Ralph Carr Management was described by multiple sources as a revolving door for young women in their late teens or early 20s who were keen to break into the industry.<\/p>\n

Once in the door, young female employees say Carr was verbally abusive and manipulative. Many describe him as volatile and unpredictable, flitting between intimacy and praise to dismissiveness, vindictiveness and rage, sometimes threatening their careers.<\/p>\n

Jessamy Gee, who worked there from 2005 to 2008, beginning when she was just 20, describes him as \u201cincredibly abusive\u201d and \u201cthe worst bully I\u2019ve ever encountered\u201d. \u201cIt was common for him \u2026 to get centimetres from your face and scream at you,\u201d she says, describing him as \u201cred and angry and intimidating and completely illogical and unreasonable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kathryn Tollerud, who worked there between 2007 and 2008, says: \u201cIf you arrived before him you were terrified for the minute he walked in.\u201d She compared him to a jack-in-the-box: \u201cAll day you\u2019re winding it up and at some point you know that thing is going to jump out and frighten you \u2026 You\u2019re waiting for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eight women have told the Guardian he would shout their names across the office and expect them to race to his desk. Tahlia, who was 21 when she began there in 2015, says he would \u201cabuse the shit out of\u201d anyone who didn\u2019t move fast enough.<\/p>\n

According to their accounts, Carr would slam doors and bang objects on tables or hurl them across rooms. Some claim they would be the favourite one day but frozen out the next; he would get jealous if his employees developed close relationships with clients and would play staff against each other. Tamblyne Cooper, who worked at RCM in 2014, describes a \u201cripple effect\u201d of toxicity: \u201cYou felt like you couldn\u2019t trust anybody,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Olivia Boddeus in Sydney. Photograph: Jessica Hromas\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Olivia Boddeus was 21 when she started as an intern in 2014, as part of her degree, and managed high school girls at RCM on work experience. In a report to the university, she wrote of the \u201cpower struggles, ego, jealousy, stress and competitive tension\u201d among staff. She wrote that she was grateful for the opportunity Carr had given her but \u201cworkplace harassment and bullying\u201d gave her \u201canxiety\u201d that eventually caused \u201ca mental breakdown\u201d, leading her to resign.<\/p>\n

Years later, she remembers Carr as intimidating, manipulative and a bully: \u201cIt was just an all-round pretty abusive, toxic culture. I\u2019d come home crying every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sara, who worked for Carr from 2011 to 2014, remembers feeling \u201cvery intimidated but also scared, and kind of trapped\u201d. \u201cI can remember every single person there crying at some point,\u201d she says, but she was a particular target: he threw things at her and screamed at her, or refused to talk to her for days at a time. She was so scared of his reaction to her resignation that she rehearsed it for weeks.<\/p>\n

His anger was \u201cfiery and aggressive \u2026 you wouldn\u2019t see it boiling up\u201d, she says. \u201cHe would back you into a corner, he\u2019d have you somewhere where he had the physical advantage.\u201d Sometimes, she alleges, he stood between her and an exit while screaming. \u201cYou\u2019d be paralysed with fear \u2026 you were completely powerless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

Sara told Carr she had ADHD, which he used as ammunition, she claims. One time she says he yelled at her, \u201cAre you having a brain haemorrhage?\u201d, knowing that this was how her father had died. \u201cThat was the breaking point.\u201d<\/p>\n

A colleague says she witnessed how dramatically his alleged bullying affected Sara. \u201cHe wore her down to a point where she just broke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtney Austin was 22 when she started at RCM in 2015. \u201cI naively thought he was encouraging young women in the industry \u2013 but in reality he was only hiring them because they could be walked all over,\u201d she says. \u201cHe would just snap, scream across the room, \u2018You\u2019re so fucking stupid\u2019 \u2013 he looked like a bull ready to charge.\u201d She remembers feeling \u201cactual sheer panic\u201d and starting each day with \u201cutter dread\u201d.<\/p>\n

Clare Heasly, a childhood friend of Tina Arena\u2019s who worked for her in the 90s, felt so threatened by Carr at a venue on the singer\u2019s 1997 In Deep tour that she went into \u201cphysical shock\u201d, she says. \u201cHe clenched his fist and stood over me and his whole arm \u2026 was shaking. He was itching to punch me. I was so frightened \u2013 I knew that if I moved or said anything he would lose control and I would be his punching bag. He said, \u2018You fucking bitch, I\u2019m going to fucking kill you, who the fuck do you think you are.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markWhen I look back I feel disgusted but at the time I thought, \u2018This will just placate him, let\u2019s keep it all friendly and fun and then I can get out of it without causing a scene\u2019Anna<\/p>\n

After hiding for more than an hour, Heasly says she told the promoter and the tour manager, who ejected Carr from the premises. The tour manager, who asked not to be named, remembers Heasly being \u201cupset and shaken\u201d and gave her a whistle to blow to alert the rest of the crew if Carr came close again. \u201cWas Ralph more aggressive than most? Yeah, he was up there,\u201d he says. \u201cWas he abusive and domineering? Yeah, he was up there. But he wasn\u2019t alone. There were plenty of guys like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arena told the Guardian she had been told about the episode at the time, describing it as deeply disturbing.<\/p>\n

Heasly blames only Carr for what happened: not anyone else working on that tour, including Arena. \u201cIt\u2019s taken 20 years to get past it,\u201d she says. \u201cI was deeply, deeply affected by it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He would choose \u2018the really hot girls\u2019<\/p>\n

One woman who worked for Carr for two years from 2010 remembers scouting for new interns: \u201cI was told to print off all the r\u00e9sum\u00e9s and delete the ones that were male, delete the ones that were older than 25,\u201d she says. More often than not, Carr would choose \u201cthe really hot girls, around 18 or so\u201d.<\/p>\n

Anna, whose name has been changed, was 24 when she was hired in 2013. At a glamorous work event she was invited to soon after starting, she says, Carr followed her up a flight of stairs, touched her waist, leant in towards her and told her: \u201cYou look sexy in that dress.\u201d She says it \u201cfelt very intimate\u201d but she tried to brush it off. The next day she remembers he was \u201cincredibly closed off \u2026 he completely ignored me\u201d.<\/p>\n

Not long after that, she says, Carr asked her to a work dinner in South Yarra with a powerful man in the industry. She says Carr told her: \u201cMake sure you wear something sexy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ralph Carr with Molly Meldrum \u2013\u00a0plus dog Ziggy \u2013 and Nick Giannopoulos in 2003. Photograph: Regis Martin\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

She says she is \u201calmost ashamed\u201d she never pushed back: \u201cWhen I look back I feel disgusted but at the time I thought, \u2018This will just placate him, let\u2019s keep it all friendly and fun and then I can get out of it without causing a scene.\u2019\u201d She had seen Carr become \u201creally fucking intimidating\u201d when he didn\u2019t get his way. Also, she says, there was another side to him: he was charming and at times \u201cfun to be around\u201d and he offered access to a world that was \u201cso exciting\u201d.<\/p>\n

When Anna resigned in 2014 to take another job, she remembers Carr begging her to stay. \u201cHe got on his knees in front of me and clasped his hands together, pleading, then put his hands on my knees,\u201d she says. \u201cI think he felt betrayed.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Monday after she left RCM, she claims Carr called her yelling. \u201cHe was like, \u2018I\u2019m going to fucking bury you, the big man upstairs sees everything \u2026 you\u2019re fucked, I\u2019m going to ruin your career.\u2019 \u2026 I was terrified for weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adds: \u201cI\u2019ve obviously buried the trauma of his behaviour really deep because talking about it still spikes my anxiety in a really physical way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anna quit 14 months after starting work for Carr. Jo, who worked at RCM in 2008, lasted only three.<\/p>\n

Jo was 19 and Carr was in his 50s when she says he sent her a message while they were both at work. That message no longer exists but Jo says she remembers it vividly: \u201cShh \u2026 don\u2019t tell anyone but you look really cute today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the receptionist \u2026 I had to greet his girlfriend [Emma], who was pregnant at the time, every afternoon when she came in,\u201d she says. Carr married Emma in 2009; the pair have three children and divorced in 2018. \u201cI felt way too uncomfortable \u2026 I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.\u201d She resigned a few weeks later.<\/p>\n

Jo now works at One of One, a not-for-profit she co-founded that celebrates women in the music industry, in which they are vastly under-represented \u2013 in part, she believes, because of men like Carr.<\/p>\n

\u201cI regret that I said nothing about this to anyone sooner but when you\u2019re 19 there\u2019s no one you can talk to,\u201d she says. RCM had no HR department to field formal complaints, and many women say they feared losing their jobs.<\/p>\n

In Australia\u2019s small music industry, that fear can feel very real \u2013 and many women have told the Guardian that Carr exploited it, trumpeting his ability to make or break careers and threatening their prospects if he didn\u2019t get his way.<\/p>\n

\u2018It just made my skin crawl\u2019<\/p>\n

Jessamy Gee and Kathryn Tollerud worked for Carr in the mid to late 2000s. \u201cAlcohol was such a big part of that industry,\u201d Tollerud says. \u201cI remember getting phone calls to go out and drink with Ralph and his friends at ridiculous times of the night. If you said no \u2026 you had a really crap next week at work.\u201d<\/p>\n

One night Carr took Gee, Tollerud and others from one venue to a strip club without warning.<\/p>\n

double quotation markThe way he would sit behind you at the computer was disgusting \u2026 It\u2019s not a good position for a woman to be in \u2026 in front of a man, bent over like thatNicole Kerr<\/p>\n

The women felt uncomfortable there, Gee says, but being so new to the industry, they had no reference points for what was appropriate. \u201cHaving young, inexperienced women around him was strategic,\u201d she says. \u201cHe can tell them whatever he wants. He can make himself out as a hero, a big shot \u2026 He\u2019d tell you that this is the way it is, this is the industry, and if you can\u2019t handle it you\u2019re weak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tollerud is now the mother of two young boys, which informed her decision to come forward now: \u201cI want them to see that their mum is going to stand up and say this behaviour is not OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sam Righi runs the promotions company Big Deal Touring, which worked with Carr until midway through 2018 when Righi filed a claim in the federal court for Carr to pay him $120,300 he allegedly owed. The court ordered RCM\u2019s touring arm to be wound up in insolvency.<\/p>\n

Righi remembers Carr saying sexually inappropriate things about his staff and clients, and describes the way Carr treated his staff as \u201cdisgusting\u201d, \u201cshocking\u201d and \u201cbelittling\u201d. In meetings Righi was present at, he says, Carr would \u201cshut them down and say \u2018shut up you idiots, what do you know\u2019 \u2026 he treated them like trash.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ralph Carr in his office in 2000. Photograph: Regis Martin\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Seven of the women the Guardian spoke to say he would make them stand between him and his keyboard, forcing them to bend over in front of him to type his emails while he sat back and watched over their shoulders, barking orders. \u201cThe way he would sit behind you at the computer was disgusting,\u201d says Nicole Kerr, who worked there in 2014. \u201cYou were crouched over typing for him, and he\u2019s sitting behind you up straight, sitting there saying, \u2018TYPE FASTER\u2019 \u2026 It\u2019s not a good position for a woman to be in \u2026 in front of a man, bent over like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Righi remembers a 2017 video call with Carr \u201cclear as day\u201d. He says Carr positioned the camera so that Righi couldn\u2019t see his face, explaining: \u201cYou don\u2019t need to see faces, you\u2019ll see why in a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Righi, Carr, who was in his late 50s, called Swinfield, then in her mid-20s, to his laptop.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was bending over the desk \u2026 and all I\u2019m seeing, my whole phone is covered with looking right down her top.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swinfield remembers this too: \u201cI remember straightening myself up so it wasn\u2019t the case, and then Ralph readjusting the camera so it was in the same place,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The inappropriate sexual behaviour wasn\u2019t new to Swinfield. In messages the Guardian has seen, an intern she had hired contacted her, anxious about how to respond to personal messages from Carr; \u201cI don\u2019t feel very good about coming into the office,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The way he treated and looked at this woman \u201cjust made my skin crawl\u201d, Swinfield says, adding that it was \u201ccreepy as fuck\u201d. When Carr asked another intern to drinks, Swinfield helped brainstorm her response.<\/p>\n

Intern Fuckkk what do I say<\/p>\n

Mahalia fucking hell dude..<\/p>\n

Mahalia ok.. here\u2019s what you do<\/p>\n

Mahalia actually.. fucking hell thats really annoying.<\/p>\n

Mahalia you kinda just need to say that you don\u2019t want to, and you need to be firm about it.. but i understand you don\u2019t want to piss him off..<\/p>\n

Intern Should I just be like oh yeah after work drinks with the crew? ill see what Mahalia and Adrian and stuff are doing or did you already invite them?<\/p>\n

Mahalia i think if it was me, i\u2019d say \u201cglad you\u2019re feeling better man, but i dunno about going out for a drink\u2026 i really like working here and i don\u2019t wanna do anything that would make that uncomfortable for me, or you\u201d<\/p>\n

Intern You reckon? okay hold up<\/p>\n

Mahalia yeah \u2013 i only say that because that way you are covered.. if you have it in writing that the idea of drinking with him makes you uncomfortable, and he fires you, or keeps trying, you have it in writing ya know?<\/p>\n

Mahalia i know it\u2019s uncomfortable, but it would just suck if he did something horrible like fire you because you didn\u2019t go out with him (not likely, but it is possible)\u2026 at least if you make it clear in writing to him, you have proof<\/p>\n

\u201cI hated bringing these young girls in that had these really amazing thoughts of what the industry was, and were then confronted by him,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t bear to keep finding them in the bathrooms in tears. They would cry because of his bullying, and how stupid he would make them feel. In one instance, she remembers Carr bringing an intern into his office, calling her work \u201ca piece of shit\u201d then telling her to \u201cgo back to \u2026 being the office dickhead\u201d.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Swinfield found a solution: she stopped hiring them.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s something that\u2019s stayed with me\u2019<\/p>\n

Many former employees have told the Guardian that they haven\u2019t been able to leave the experience behind.<\/p>\n

Tahlia remembers being called \u201cfucking retarded\u201d and \u201ca fucking idiot\u201d. The \u201cconstant abuse and yelling and swearing\u201d made her afraid of going into the office by herself: \u201cI went into shock and didn\u2019t know what to do \u2026 but I was 21, fresh out of uni and trying to get my foot in the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her anxiety peaked in June 2016 when she found herself frozen at a train station on her way to the office, feeling unable to breathe or move. \u201cMy lungs were closing in,\u201d she says. She ended up contacting a co-worker and saying \u201cI\u2019m stuck, I literally feel like I\u2019m dying, I can\u2019t breathe.\u201d She is one of a number of employees who have experienced panic attacks they believe were a result of working for Carr.<\/p>\n

\u201cI shut myself off from everything \u2026 I\u2019d get home and just have breakdowns,\u201d Tahlia says. When she quit, she was charged with finding a replacement; Carr told her to only look for \u201cyoung girls who will speak when spoken to\u201d.<\/p>\n

She says it took her six months to feel confident in her new workplace. \u201cI got help after I left but it\u2019s something that\u2019s stayed with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janine Kerr was Arena\u2019s personal assistant in the 90s and says she had to work for Carr too. She remembers him as a \u201cbully\u201d and a \u201cthug\u201d who \u201cyelled and screamed and carried on like a five-year-old if he didn\u2019t get his way\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m probably a little tougher than the rest but I did have times where I went home and cried,\u201d Kerr says. \u201cHe intimidated people to the point where they were scared to go into the office \u2026 [These young women] are green and excited to learn, and want to be there. They\u2019re paid peanuts, and then you suck the life out of them \u2026 That\u2019s not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Lauren Poulter, who worked for Carr for two years from 2010, it took a year to get over the stress of it and close to a decade to regain her confidence.<\/p>\n

For Nicole Kerr, one month was enough. \u201cLife is too short to put up with abuse five days a week,\u201d she wrote in her resignation letter. \u201cI won\u2019t be returning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Nino Bucci<\/p>\n

Information and support is available in Australia at Lifeline on 13 11 14, Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 and Full Stop Australia on 1800 385 578. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On 22 October 2018, Mahalia Swinfield hit send on the email she had been drafting in her head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-845933","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\/845933","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=845933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}