Former federal MP Craig Kelly’s office manager gave gift card vouchers to a young female employee and asked her to kiss him on the lips to repay the gesture, a Sydney court has heard, along with covert recordings made by the alleged victim.
Francesco “Frank” Zumbo, 55, is facing 20 charges, including sexual touching and indecent assault, linked to accusations by five women between 2014 and 2020. The third alleged victim gave evidence on Friday at Downing Centre local court.
The woman met Zumbo when she was a student in his class at the University of New South Wales. He invited her to volunteer with Kelly ahead of the 2013 election and she was later offered paid employment in the office.
Zumbo has pleaded not guilty to all charges, with his defence lawyers arguing he tried to create a collegial atmosphere and none of the alleged sexual contact occurred.
The alleged victim told the court on Friday that soon after beginning her employment in the electorate office in southern Sydney, Zumbo insisted on picking her up and driving her home each day.
She said Zumbo told her he did not want her to be seen catching buses – something he said could be used by “spies” in other factions of the Liberal party.
The woman said that after Zumbo began driving her, he would be “very insistent of a more physical form” of greeting – such as hugging her when she got in the passenger seat. “That’s typically how the day started,” she told the court.
She claimed she told him she was not much of a “touchy-feely” person but Zumbo said his Italian heritage meant “we’re very affectionate people” and hugging was a “normal part of adult relationships”.
She said this intensified to include a hug each morning in the car, then in the car park under the office when they arrived, and again at the end of the day.
The woman said she would hold her arms tight to her body when Zumbo tried to hug her and sometimes he would push his arms through her arms. “I was trying to stand tight for hugs,” she told the court.
She said Zumbo would discuss office matters and her political career during the car trips and he began to ask her sexual questions about her virginity and her relationships with men – questions she told the court she did not want to answer.
She said unless she gave him a response that answered his question he would repeat it “until I told him what he wanted”.
The woman said Zumbo would give her Westfield and Myer gift cards worth about $250. She told him they were too generous but Zumbo claimed he wanted to show affection to people he cared about, the court heard.
She said Zumbo would frequently invite her out for dinner, one on one, eventually once a week several years into her employment. She said she would rarely go, offering excuses to avoid the dinners. However, she said that when Zumbo invited her to dinner to celebrate her birthday, she would go.
She told the court that after one birthday dinner in 2015 the pair were alone in his car when he asked for a kiss to repay the gratitude he had shown by giving her the gift cards. He suggested she would be selfish not to, the woman alleged.
The woman said she declined and said she would rather return the gift cards. She said Zumbo then asked her for a kiss on the cheek instead – which she also declined.
She then began crying but Zumbo continued to ask for repayment for the gift cards, including for her to hug him, the court heard.
The woman said after an hour of negotiating a gesture, she acquiesced and let Zumbo hug her from the driver’s seat, holding her for several minutes as she sat there with her arms by her side.
“I felt there was no other way to get home,” she said. The court heard Zumbo then told her that allowing him to hug her had improved their relationship and he drove her home.
On Friday afternoon, the prosecution played an audio recording made by the witness of an hours-long interaction with Zumbo three days after the encounter in the car where he allegedly asked her to kiss him. It was recorded without Zumbo’s knowledge but has been accepted as evidence.
In the recording, Zumbo can be heard talking about their evening in his car three days earlier. He says, “it wouldn’t have cost you very much to give me a kiss”.
Zumbo said her refusal constituted a third “strike” and proceeded to complain about her behaviour. “Good friends kiss one another,” he said. “You’ve treated me like shit basically at the end of the day … I will drive away still loving you.” Zumbo added that he was “crushed”.
“I don’t ask you for sex, I don’t ask you for anything you can’t give me, I don’t ask to touch you inappropriately. It’s the perfect relationship.”
When he complained she would not kiss him even on the cheek, she said she did not kiss her own friends on the cheek.
He asked why she didn’t want to accept money and gift cards from him, noting that he wasn’t asking her for “a big sloppy kiss” or whether he could “touch you in the private parts”. “How many guys do that? I’m just the guy that helps you get jobs,” he said.
Earlier in the recording, Zumbo could be heard asking for permission to touch her.
“Can I hold your hand for a sec? Huh? Huh? Can I?… C’mon, c’mon, I’m not going to …this is because I love you.”
He asked her what she wanted in a boyfriend and if they could develop into romantic partners, to which she said no. He asked her why she hadn’t told him that earlier.
“So I’ve been working under the misapprehension that maybe we could develop into something more?” he asked, to which she said yes.
Zumbo then asked the woman, “do you think it’s creepy that I’m nice to you?” to which she replied no.
He then asked her: “Do you think it’s creepy if I touch your leg?” Her answer was inaudible and Zumbo followed up with: “So can I touch your leg?” The woman replied, “no”.
“So there’s no willingness to have a sexual relationship? You don’t find me attractive obviously?”
In the recording, Zumbo also described himself as “a lawyer and a gentleman and a feminist” and said he “never treat[s] women as sex objects”.
Friday’s proceedings began with Zumbo’s lawyers continuing cross-examination of the second witness, another former electorate office worker.
On Thursday, the woman told the court of an alleged incident when the pair was sitting on a park bench at night to smoke cigarettes and Zumbo kissed her on the cheek and took his penis out of his pants.
She was asked on Friday why she got back in Zumbo’s car after the incident to let him drive her home if she had been uncomfortable. She said it wasn’t a comfortable ride but was preferable to a long walk home alone in the dark.
The court heard of an earlier instance where the woman allegedly told Zumbo to “go fuck yourself”. The defence also noted there were WhatsApp messages where she claimed to have raised issues with Zumbo directly.
Zumbo’s lawyer asked the woman why, if she had previously confronted Zumbo, she didn’t complain about his behaviour directly to Kelly, the then Liberal member for Hughes.
She said she had no way of directly contacting Kelly, noting that Zumbo monitored the MP’s emails and accompanied Kelly when he was in the presence of staff, making her feel “underpowered”.
She said she ultimately did try to contact Kelly directly via social media, which she believed he controlled himself. “It was the only way I could try and reach him.”
She told the court on Friday that Kelly opened her messages – or at least they showed as having been read – but did not reply.
The woman claimed on another instance when she and Zumbo were travelling to a Liberal party event in the back seat of a car with other colleagues, he placed his hand on her leg and moved it to her upper thigh.
She denied Zumbo’s lawyer’s assertion that he “momentarily tapped” her leg with an “open palm” and rejected the suggestion she could have called him out while in the car.
“It would’ve meant arguments, it would’ve meant denial, and it would’ve meant many a discussion in the office,” she said.
