A high-profile Sydney man has had three charges against him – including one count of rape – withdrawn for an undisclosed reason and the complainant will no longer appear before the court.
The complainant who alleged the man had assaulted her three times, which led to the charges, was set to be the sixth and final complainant to appear before the New South Wales Downing Centre district court.
The accused, whom Guardian Australia cannot name due to a suppression order, is facing trial after pleading not guilty to 12 charges – which included six counts of rape – alleged to have occurred over a six-year period against six women on separate occasions.
Following the crown prosecutor Adrian Robertson telling the court there would be no further proceedings against the accused on three charges, the man now faces nine charges, which include five counts of rape.
The withdrawn charges include one count of rape, one act of indecency and one count of assault.
“Put a big line through those charges,” Judge Jane Culver said to the jury. “They are no longer in existence.
“There is no evidence of those matters before you and you must completely put it out of your mind.”
Later on Thursday, the court heard testimony from a former girlfriend of the high-profile man, who said he showed her video footage he filmed of her on numerous occasions without her knowledge.
“[The accused] had lots of cameras and GoPros … I did not know that I was being filmed or when I was being filmed,” she said of footage taken in a home where they lived together in 2016.
Robertson asked the woman, who appeared as a witness before the district court, if she could see where the devices “might have been” after watching the footage.
She responded that she could tell areas where the camera was “hidden” but she wasn’t aware it was there when she was being recorded.
Two of the five complainants have alleged that video recordings were made of them engaging in consensual sexual intercourse with the accused without their consent or knowledge.
The crown is arguing the man had a tendency to carry out sexual conduct with usually much younger women, knowing that they did not consent or that he was reckless to their consent.
The man’s defence argues there was sex with the five women who have alleged he raped them. However, his defence argues, the sex was consensual, “not in the circumstances alleged by the crown”, and that the complainants “admired the accused, even idolised him”.
Under cross-examination by David Scully SC, the accused’s former partner – who said their relationship ended in 2017 – was asked if the recording of her “in the bedroom” at the home they lived at was shown to her at various times.
“Yes,” she responded.
He then asked if the footage was shown to her on multiple occasions and “not all at the same time”, she agreed that was correct.
Earlier, under questioning from the crown, the woman was asked about the pair’s drug use. She said they consumed numerous illicit drugs, including methamphetamine, cocaine, acid, and ketamine.
Robertson read out to the court a statement made to the police by another witness.
The witness said in 2016 a friend, who is part of the trial and known as complainant five, told her that the accused had grabbed her by the throat and had locked her in a room. The witness said she later confronted the accused about the incident, and she wrote in the statement that the man responded that the woman was “out of control on drugs”, “crazy” and “lying”.
In 2019, the witness posted a “poem” about the accused on social media, the court heard. One woman – who is part of the trial and known as complainant four – responded saying the accused had “ruined” her life.
In 2020, the witness was connected with another women – who is also part of the trial and complainant three – who told her the accused had raped and “manipulated” her, the court heard.
The witness later accompanied the complainant to the police station to make a statement.
The trial continues.
