Frank Zumbo has told a court it was confusion and a cultural misunderstanding that caused him to demand a hug and a “thank you kiss” from a young female staff member to whom he had given an envelope full of cash as a birthday present.
Zumbo and the woman, who worked in the office of the then federal MP Craig Kelly, were alone in a car, in a car park, beneath Tom Uglys Bridge late at night after a dinner.
The alleged victim has accused Zumbo of touching her inappropriately on numerous occasions, including squeezing her thigh, and regularly hugging her and kissing her cheek against her will.
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. Zumbo was, at the time of the alleged offences, the office manager for Kelly, the Liberal party member for the southern Sydney electorate of Hughes.
In Zumbo’s evidence-in-chief before Sydney’s Downing Centre local court, he told the court the incident in the car park arose from his confusion about a lack of reciprocity from the alleged victim – who cannot legally be named – after he’d given her “cash, or a gift card equivalent to cash” in an envelope as a birthday present.
The woman was a student of Zumbo’s at a university before he got her a job working in Kelly’s electorate office in southern Sydney.
After a dinner to mark the alleged victim’s birthday, Zumbo was driving her home when they took a diversion to a car park underneath Tom Uglys Bridge in Blakehurst, “because I wanted to give her a birthday gift and to have a chat quickly”.
Asked in court why he didn’t drive the woman straight home, and give her the present at her house, Zumbo told the court it was because of the street where she lived.
“If we sat for an extended time, any neighbour would see her in the car, or her mother might notice the car and think there was something untoward.”
In the car park, Zumbo said he handed over the envelope, wishing her a happy birthday, and leaned over to kiss the woman on the cheek. When she pulled away, he demanded of her: “Don’t I get a thank you kiss?”
He told the court on Friday he was confused by the alleged victim’s lack of reciprocity.
“I asked her for a kiss and a hug. I was trying to understand why she wasn’t giving me a kiss and a hug as a thank you for the present.”
Sydney-born Zumbo said his Italian heritage had made him an affectionate, tactile person.
“In my culture there’s an understanding that you give someone a gift and they would reciprocate and say thank you with a kiss on the cheek.
“At that point, I couldn’t understand why. I was just confused at this time.”
The court has previously been played recordings of a subsequent conversation between the alleged victim and Zumbo, where they discussed the incident in the car.
In the recording, Zumbo told the alleged victim she was “very selfish” and “self-centred” for refusing to give him “a little thank-you kiss”.
In the alleged victim’s evidence to court last year, she said Zumbo asked her to kiss him on the lips as an expression of gratitude for the gift. He denied that in court on Friday.
The alleged victim testified that after she declined to kiss Zumbo on the lips, she 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 to let Zumbo hug her from the driver’s seat, holding her for several minutes as she sat there with her arms by her side.
In court on Friday, Zumbo agreed they had reached “a compromise”, but testified the physical contact was not minutes long: “It was just a short hug, it was just a token hug.”
Zumbo denied ever inappropriately touching, or kissing without consent, any of the young women – whom he called collectively “the sisters” – in his employ in Kelly’s office.
He also denied allegations he exposed his penis to one woman he employed late at night in a park in Willoughby, again having diverted from a lift home.
During his cross-examination Friday afternoon, Zumbo said several of the women who had made allegations against him were “liars” who were “being duplicitous”. He accused some of “drinking to excess”.
He told the court he was “bitterly disappointed” at his accusers, in whose political careers, he said, he had invested significant time and endeavour.
“The betrayal amplified and got bigger the more I trusted them,” he said.
The trial, before magistrate Gareth Christofi, has been adjourned to a date in September. Zumbo’s bail has been continued.
