A MAN who got drunk at his work Christmas party and allegedly raped a young woman at Islington in 2021 has no memory of the "random and brazen attack", a jury has heard.
"I am not saying I didn't do it, I am just saying I don't have a memory of it," the man told police when he was arrested at his workplace three days after the alleged sexual assault.
The man, aged in his 50s, who cannot be identified, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated sexual assault and inflict actual bodily harm and on Tuesday faced the first day of a trial in Newcastle District Court that will focus on what happened inside a van parked on Maitland Road on the night of December 10, 2021.
During her opening address, Crown prosecutor Amanda Mifsud told the jury the man had been drinking alcohol with colleagues at a work Christmas party on the night of the alleged rape, the group moving between pubs in Hamilton before heading to The Newcastle Hotel in Islington, where the man was refused entry and separated from his workmates.
It was about 11.20pm, and nearby a 23-year-old woman had finished work and was walking to her van to grab some perfume before planning to head out with friends.
Ms Mifsud said the woman initially thought a workmate was playing a joke on her when someone pressed against her from behind as she leaned into the van.
But the woman then feared she was being robbed as the person allegedly grabbed her around the neck and forcefully pushed her down.
The woman tried to turn around and began struggling, throwing punches and saying "get the f--- off me" before the man allegedly grabbed her around the throat, Ms Mifsud said.
The woman tried to scream, but the man allegedly put his hand over her mouth and told her "no one will hear you scream", Ms Misfud told the jury.
The woman says she was then raped and began screaming out for help to a passerby who intervened and chased the man off.
The woman called triple-zero while the man ran and hid in nearby Fern Street before returning to Beaumont Street where he had another drink alone at the Kent Hotel.
He called his wife to come and pick him up from King Street McDonald's about 1.30am and she arrived to find him asleep on the ground outside.
Meanwhile, police were examining the woman's van where they found a pair of sunglasses that later produced a DNA match to the man facing trial.
The man was arrested at his work on December 13, 2021 and later identified himself as the person in CCTV standing near the van before the woman says she was attacked.
When police put the allegation to him, the man said he had no memory of sexually assaulting anyone and couldn't remember much of the night.
"No way, I wouldn't have done that," the man told police. "No way, oh f---. No way, that is crap. I swear I didn't do it. I am not that person. I am just not that person. I didn't do it."
The man also said: "I'm not going to deny it, but I can't remember doing it" and "I can't believe it happened, I can't believe I've done something like that".
During her opening address, defence barrister Rebecca Suters said there was no question that it was the man on trial who had approached the woman at her van. But she said he denied raping the woman and the issue for the jury to determine was what happened in the van.
On that note, with the man incapable of providing his side of the story, Ms Suters said the woman's evidence "assumed enormous importance" and the jury would need to be satisfied of her "accuracy, honesty and reliability" in recounting what she said happened in the van.
The trial, before Judge Jennie Girdham, continues.
