A high-profile Melbourne businessman facing multiple sexual violence charges is currently on trial at Melbourne’s County Court, with prosecutors pushing jurors to dismiss the defense’s argument that his accuser fabricated her claims for financial gain.
The defendant, whose identity remains protected by a court-ordered suppression order, has entered a plea of not guilty to two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. The charges stem from an alleged incident in 2023, where prosecutors claim the sexual violence occurred after the pair spent an evening consuming alcohol and cocaine together. According to court documents, after the alleged assault, the accuser punched the businessman and called him a rapist, to which he reportedly responded, “It’s not rape, I was using my fingers.”
Leading the defense team, barrister Dermot Dann KC has maintained that the alleged incident never occurred, and has repeatedly questioned the accuser’s credibility and reliability as a witness, arguing she had clear motive to fabricate the story to harm the defendant or extract money from him. Dann noted at the opening of the trial that there are “massive” inconsistencies undermining the accuser’s account, and that the prosecution’s entire case hinges on jurors accepting her testimony as truthful.
In his closing address delivered to the jury on Wednesday, prosecutor Matthew Fisher openly acknowledged that the accuser’s evidence contains gaps, discrepancies, and inconsistencies. Even so, Fisher stressed that the core of the woman’s account has never shifted: “Not once did she waver from the alleged sexual offending … She’s been consistent and adamant throughout this that this is what he did to her in that room on that night.”
Fisher directly pushed back against the defense’s claim of a fabricated, financially motivated claim. He argued that if the woman had indeed constructed the allegations to get money or retaliate against the businessman, she “could have done a better job” of crafting a consistent, self-serving narrative. He pointed to key evidence that contradicts the idea of a pre-planned lie: text messages sent to the woman’s mother on the night of the incident show she had no intention of contacting police, and she agreed to keep the encounter secret to protect the defendant’s reputation. Additional evidence also shows she continued to speak positively about the businessman, who was her former boss, stating she still believed in his professional vision and that he was “greater than his actions.”
“This is a case where the defence are going to suggest to you (the woman) has an ulterior motive for making these allegations,” Fisher told the jury. “That would be the last thing she would be doing if she wanted to make all of this up.”
The trial is ongoing and is expected to conclude in the coming days as both sides wrap their arguments.