A young woman who was allegedly sexually touched by Frank Zumbo felt “done with life” and told a friend she had worn a specific item of clothing hoping to avoid being assaulted, a court has heard.
Zumbo – chief of staff and senior adviser to the former federal MP Craig Kelly – would regularly grope the young female staff member when they were alone in Kelly’s office, she told Sydney’s Downing Centre local court.
“He would be sitting next to me in the seat in Craig’s [Kelly] office, put his hand down my thigh and then rub against my vagina,” she said, giving evidence for a third day in Zumbo’s trial.
The court was shown text messages between the woman – who cannot legally be named – and a friend in which she disclosed Zumbo’s alleged behaviour and its impact on her mental health.
She wrote in September 2018: “I let him touch me however he likes, say whatever he wants, and then shit like this happens and I literally want to die.”
In another message, sent the same month, she wrote: “It continued all day. All day … he proceeded to rub my vaginal area extensively, while saying nice stuff about me and telling me how beautiful I am.”
In court on Wednesday, the woman explained that she felt she was not able to forcibly reject Zumbo, or to tell him to stop, without risking him becoming angry with her.
“He’d rant for half an hour, and I couldn’t take it … it had been quite a few years of it, and I was just done with it, and done with life.”
In another message in 2018, she wrote to a friend that she had specifically worn particular clothing to avoid being assaulted.
“Frank hasn’t been terrible like generally, however there have been some bum and boob squeezes … but other than that he’s been okay. I’m wearing a dress so he can’t get his hands too far up my legs today.”
In another message produced in court, the woman told a friend: “I finally told Frank to stop touching my breasts when he hugs me. But he’s gotten upset about it. He said ‘I thought we were close’ and I should think about what I want”.
On a separate occasion when she told Zumbo to stop grasping her breasts because it was painful, she told a friend he replied: “‘That is what guys do when they love you’”.
Francesco “Frank” Zumbo, 55, has pleaded not guilty to 20 charges, including sexual touching and indecent assault, related to accusations made by five women between 2014 and 2020.
The woman was selected by Zumbo and Kelly for work experience while she was still in high school. As a teenager, she worked two days a week in the politician’s electorate office while studying at university.
The woman told the court on Wednesday one of the most confronting incidents occurred in April 2018 when she had been upset by Zumbo and was crying in Kelly’s office. She told the court she was washing her face at a sink, when Zumbo approached her, hugged her, and then forcibly kissed her on the lips.
“All of the conduct made me feel uncomfortable, but this one stood out to me. Frank came over when I reached the sink. He apologised, and said ‘I still love you’ and he went for what I thought would be a kiss on the cheek, and he kissed me on the lips.”
The kiss lasted “less than five seconds”, before the woman pulled away.
The woman told the court she confronted Zumbo, saying “Frank, what was that?”.
“He apologised profusely and said ‘it will never happen again’,” she said.
The woman, then 20, told the court she was acutely upset because, “as sad as it might be, I hadn’t been kissed before. He took my first kiss away from me, I will never forget that”.
When the woman told another female staff member, the court heard that she replied: “that happened to me as well”.
Also on Wednesday, the court heard that Zumbo regularly checked the woman’s phone and social media posts, including, on one occasion, going through her phone without permission when she visited the bathroom.
The court also heard Zumbo was “generous with his money” in the office. It was alleged he would regularly give the woman cash to pay for lunch, textbooks or medical appointments.
“He would hand over $100 bills, $50 bills,” she told the court.
“The majority of the money I didn’t use because I felt it was dirty money, I just put it in a book.”
Asked by magistrate Gareth Christofi why she accepted the money if she felt it was “dirty”, the woman told the court: “If I didn’t accept it, there would be a conversation where he would say ‘are you rejecting my friendship, are you rejecting me?’”
When Zumbo’s trial commenced last year, the woman spent the money, which was about $1,600.
“Because I was angry. Sorry. I don’t have it any more.”
The court heard the woman had enjoyed a stellar university career, scoring high distinctions and winning prizes. She told the court she credited Zumbo with helping edit her university assignments.
“I do give him credit for helping me achieve those results.”
During an at-time emotional cross-examination, the woman was taken to apparent inconsistencies between her statements in court on Zumbo, and her messages to him, telling him she cared for him and wanted to be part of his team.
She told the court she told Zumbo what he wanted to hear, “to avoid fights”.
The woman was interrogated as to why she continued to accept Zumbo’s offer to drive her to and from work when, she has alleged in court, she was sexually assaulted in the car, and he had offered for her to be driven by her parents.
She told the court Zumbo’s offer was not genuine, and rejecting him would cause him to lose his temper and berate her.
“I wish it were a legit choice … If I were to reject his lift, I would reject his help, I would pretty much reject everything.”
The woman conceded that although she came to despise Zumbo, “I didn’t feel I could leave”.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org
