Teh One Who Knocks
07-24-2013, 10:51 AM
ZARA DAWTREY - The Mercury (Australia)
A SOUTH Hobart man accused of sexually assaulting a Victorian school teacher during New Year's Eve celebrations on the waterfront told police if he had wanted sex he would have gone to a brothel or "got a girl on speed or a fat girl".
Mathew Luke Johnson, 35, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated sexual assault, saying the 26-year-old tourist was the one who pulled him into the Parliament House car park in the early hours of New Year's Day.
The prosecution has told jurors "there was no way [the alleged victim] was remotely able to give consent".
Crown prosecutor Tony Jacobs described the woman as "completely helpless" that night after consuming significantly more alcohol than she usually would at Salamanca bars and the Taste of Tasmania festival.
She was in town to spend the New Year with her sister, a Tasmanian resident, but the two became separated on New Year's Eve, hours before the woman met Mr Johnson.
The court heard Mr Johnson and the complainant became acquainted outside a nightclub near Parliament House and after they kissed he asked her if she wanted to go home with him.
He told police in an interview played to the court yesterday she smiled and led him by the hand into the car park.
He said he started kissing her then progressed further, only stopping when, according to him, six men appeared and attacked him.
He ran away and caught a taxi home.
But the police interviewing Mr Johnson told him it was a Bridgewater couple who had accosted him, shouting at him to get off her after noticing the woman appeared semi-conscious with her stockings and underwear pulled down.
She was lying flat on her back on the asphalt with Mr Johnson on top of her.
"You took advantage of her and those people got involved because they knew something was wrong," the interviewing detective said.
"She was heavily intoxicated and you performed a sex act on her in a public car park."
Mr Johnson responded by saying he was "not a rapist, man".
Taking the witness stand yesterday, the woman said she was the drunkest she had been in her life.
She said the sexual activity described was "not something I would do".
"I have some really patchy memories of being on the ground somewhere," she told the court.
The trial continues today.
A SOUTH Hobart man accused of sexually assaulting a Victorian school teacher during New Year's Eve celebrations on the waterfront told police if he had wanted sex he would have gone to a brothel or "got a girl on speed or a fat girl".
Mathew Luke Johnson, 35, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated sexual assault, saying the 26-year-old tourist was the one who pulled him into the Parliament House car park in the early hours of New Year's Day.
The prosecution has told jurors "there was no way [the alleged victim] was remotely able to give consent".
Crown prosecutor Tony Jacobs described the woman as "completely helpless" that night after consuming significantly more alcohol than she usually would at Salamanca bars and the Taste of Tasmania festival.
She was in town to spend the New Year with her sister, a Tasmanian resident, but the two became separated on New Year's Eve, hours before the woman met Mr Johnson.
The court heard Mr Johnson and the complainant became acquainted outside a nightclub near Parliament House and after they kissed he asked her if she wanted to go home with him.
He told police in an interview played to the court yesterday she smiled and led him by the hand into the car park.
He said he started kissing her then progressed further, only stopping when, according to him, six men appeared and attacked him.
He ran away and caught a taxi home.
But the police interviewing Mr Johnson told him it was a Bridgewater couple who had accosted him, shouting at him to get off her after noticing the woman appeared semi-conscious with her stockings and underwear pulled down.
She was lying flat on her back on the asphalt with Mr Johnson on top of her.
"You took advantage of her and those people got involved because they knew something was wrong," the interviewing detective said.
"She was heavily intoxicated and you performed a sex act on her in a public car park."
Mr Johnson responded by saying he was "not a rapist, man".
Taking the witness stand yesterday, the woman said she was the drunkest she had been in her life.
She said the sexual activity described was "not something I would do".
"I have some really patchy memories of being on the ground somewhere," she told the court.
The trial continues today.