A witness denied that her claim to have had sex with a man on the night of an alleged bashing was because she was scared of him.
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The woman, who was 17 years old at the time, told a Supreme Court jury on Monday that she did not see the bashing of Alexander Robert Friend in a Waverley unit because she was in the bathroom with Corey Mitchell Gesler, 28, of Youngtown.
Mr Gesler has pleaded not guilty to the aggravated armed robbery of Mr Friend on January 9-10, 2018, and to doing an unlawful act with the intention of causing grievous bodily harm by punching him to the face, head and body, elbowing him to the head and striking him with a wooden baton [a chair leg] and kicking him to the face, head and body.
The Crown asserts that Mr Friend was invited to a Waverley unit where four men had hatched a plan to rob him of cash and drugs. The Crown says she saw Mr Friend bashed and removed from the unit.
The woman was cross examined by crown prosecutor Tamila Smith on Tuesday about her bathroom sex claim. She agreed that she told police that she was straightening her hair in the bathroom rather than having sex. The witness denied that she changed her story about the encounter to match one that Mr Gesler told his mother. "There was no romantic encounter, it didn't happen?," Ms Smith asked. "Yes it did," she replied.
She said she had not mentioned it because she thought the age gap between the pair was inappropriate.
She said she did not recall saying to police that she heard seven to eight minutes of groaning by Mr Friend.
On Monday the court heard that she made a diary note on her phone that said in part: "I'm now sitting at a friend's, Corey flogged this poor bloke, there is blood everywhere, can't get the blood out of the carpet".
The woman denied that she had her phone with her on the night, but agreed that other details in the diary note were true. "You wrote that note because it is what happened?," Ms Smith asked. "I disagree," she said.
When asked in a police interview why she said it was Corey the woman said: "I knew he would put his name behind it to protect me."
Ms Smith asked her about a police interview in which she said: "I'm not safe if I say any names."
When an officer asked "why" she said: "Look what happened to this guy."
Ms Smith asked in court: "You were too scared to say who had done it?" "No," the witness said.
When questioned by her lawyer, Patrick O' Halloran, she agreed that she referred to Mr Gesler as Christian Gray [a character in the novel 50 Shades of Grey] and that she had a sexual attraction to him. She said she did not recall telling police that the main assailant was unable to stop and was "going animal".
She agreed that she pleaded guilty to being accessory after the fact to the aggravated armed robbery for cleaning items and removing a chair leg from the unit and being an accessory after the fact of causing grievous bodily harm for cleaning up blood. The trial continues.
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