CCTV footage of a man, who can't be named for legal reasons, who allegedly followed a young sex worker and her client into an apartment and raped her. Photo / Supplied
CCTV footage of a man, who can't be named for legal reasons, who allegedly followed a young sex worker and her client into an apartment and raped her. Photo / Supplied
WARNING: Disturbing content
A jury in Australia has watched confronting footage filmed by an accused serial rapist during an alleged rape of a young sex worker.
The 28-year-old man, who can't be named for legal reasons, is on trial before NSW District court judge Deborah Sweeney at the Downing Centre in Sydney. He is accused of raping five women and robbing and assaulting others over several weeks in 2016.
The man follows the pair out of the lift. Photo / Supplied
One of the women, who can't be named for legal reasons, this week testified via audio visual link that she had arrived to meet a client at the Sydney Park Regis apartments when she let him into a room and another man forced his way in behind them. The court heard that the intruder subjected the sex worker, who had only started escorting days earlier, to a harrowing ordeal over the next three hours.
CCTV footage played to the jury on Thursday showed the woman, then age 22, walking into the foyer of the apartment complex and greeting her client at about 5.40am on June 19, 2016. A second man, the accused, can be seen wearing a white jumper and black cap, and following her through the lobby, then into a lift and out onto the 29th floor.
"I was closing (the apartment door) behind me and I felt some … resistance … that's when I looked and (the defendant) had forced it completely open, and made his way into the room," the woman said.
She told the court that the man produced a firearm and demanded her client repay a $30,000 debt owed to an associate by Sunday of that week. Barrister Sally Orman-Hales, for the defence, put it to the alleged victim that her client didn't have a gun during the encounter. The woman rejected the assertion and described the fear she had felt in the moment.
"I was hyperventilating, I couldn't breathe. I was just physically shaking. I was really, really scared."
The jury heard that the defendant soon "turned his attention" to the woman before sending her client to an ATM with her bank card to withdraw money from her account. The woman's client allegedly followed his instructions and returned with $700 cash which he handed to the other man before leaving.
The woman said she was "absolutely petrified" when the intruder then told her to take off her clothes and "spin around".
A video filmed by the alleged attacker on his phone during the incident was played to the jury several times this week. It showed him, with his erect penis exposed, instructing the alleged victim to perform sex acts on him. Stunned members of the jury watched on as the graphic footage played in front of them.
"You like that?" the man says in the video.
"I'm just very nervous and scared," the woman replied.
The footage showed him then touching her naked body and instructing her to move in specific ways on the bed before he "threw the phone to the side" and allegedly raped the woman.
The accused rapist (white jumper) allegedly ordered a meal for himself and the woman after raping her then taking her to North Parramatta McDonald's. Photo / Supplied
"I knew what was going to happen," she told the court.
"My survival instincts just kicked in and said it's going to happen whether you want it to or not."
The woman told the court that the man was "aggressive … unpredictable (and) dangerous" and she felt that for the sake of her own safety she had no choice but to comply with his requests.
"I tried to stop it. He was bigger and stronger than me and there wasn't much I could do," she said.
"I just shut down … I went into shock denial mode and accepted I was powerless.
"Clearly he didn't care I didn't want it to happen (or that) I was getting extremely distressed."
While cross-examining the alleged victim, Ms Orman-Hales put it to her that the sexual activity between her client and the woman was consensual, and that they had been "hanging out". The woman vehemently denied the allegations.
"I wasn't sure if I was going to make it out of there," she said.
"Literally, I could not move … it was very painful."
The woman said that when the man had "finished" allegedly raping her, he ordered her to get him a glass of water, which she did. The court heard the man then told her they were going to an internet cafe to meet his cousins and had instructed her to "act natural" before leaving the apartment. CCTV footage played in court showed the pair walking out of the complex and to a car outside. The alleged victim said the man "gifted" her a gold bracelet from his glove box and put it on her wrist before driving to pick up two male relatives and taking the group to McDonald's in North Parramatta.
"I didn't want to appear I was trying to get out of the situation I was in because I was scared for my life," she said.
"And he said to 'act natural'."
She said she was too fearful of what he might have been capable of to attempt to escape while at the fast food restaurant or elsewhere in his company. The court heard that the man ordered a meal for himself and the woman, despite her telling him she didn't have an appetite. To appease him, she said she ate the hash brown and muffin he bought for her.
"I wanted to do everything I was told, thinking it would get me out faster," she told the court.
A 22-year-old woman breaks down in a taxi just moments after she escapes from her alleged rapist in North Parramatta on June 19, 2016. Photo / Supplied
It was a decision that she said ultimately paid off when the man allowed her to call a taxi from McDonald's and return to the agency. CCTV footage played in court showed the woman putting her face into her hands and bursting into tears inside the taxi as it drove away with her inside, about 8.10am.
Earlier this week, another one of the man's alleged victims told the court he had held her against her will and raped her, after he booked an appointment with her through an escort agency on May 7, 2016.
The sex worker said that when the man arrived to meet her at a Meriton apartment complex in Parramatta, he told her once inside that he wouldn't be paying for sex because "it was his birthday". She described him as "very aggressive" and "dominant" to the point she was unable to get away from him. The court heard that the man played a video on his phone to the woman which contained footage of him engaged in sexual acts with a blond woman who he "slapped around" then "kicked off the bed".
The complainant said she too was then subjected to physical and sexual abuse at the hands of the alleged rapist. She told the court that the man repeatedly called her a "slut" and other "degrading things" before he "beat" her then "spat" in her eye. In an emotional testimony, she told the jury that he had restrained her with his hands before brutally raping her.
"It's not easy having this thing inside you while in so much pain," she said.
"I was horrified because I'd never been in that situation before. I was shaking (and) scared.
The man was arrested in June 2016 and charged over the alleged sexual assault and robbery of a woman that month. He was later charged with another four counts of aggravated sexual assault, and a string of other charges including assault occasioning actual bodily harm and using a carriage service to threaten. He has denied all charges. The trial continues.
If you're in danger now:
• Phone the police on 111 or ask neighbours of friends to ring for you.
• Run outside and head for where there are other people.
• Scream for help so that your neighbours can hear you.
• White Ribbon: Aiming to eliminate men's violence towards women, focusing this year on sexual violence and the issue of consent. www.whiteribbon.org.nz
