A man in a long-term gay relationship has denied raping his girlfriend, saying he was curious and that the sex was consensual.
Dominic Edmund Hansson is on trial on charges of raping a woman in her downtown Brisbane apartment on 7 December 2019.
The now 28-year-old told police he was curious and asked the woman if she wanted to have sex, to which she replied, “of course, I will,” a court in Brisbane has told.
According to Hansson’s version, the sex was in multiple positions by mutual consent, after which the couple fell asleep and never did it again, prosecutor Chris Cook said in his closing plea on Wednesday.
The Crown states that Hansson was the woman’s trusted friend and confided in her about an argument with his boyfriend two days before the sexual encounter.
Hansson had been drinking at the Waterloo Hotel, got no response when he tried to contact her, and went to her house, insisting on sleeping in her bed.
“She didn’t see much of a problem with this because she was led to believe he was gay, led to believe he loved his partner Tony, led to believe he was her boyfriend, led to believe that she could trust him,” Mr. Cook told the Brisbane District Court.
He said Hansson used what he knew about the woman’s unconventional sex life as “the right to treat her as an object…for his own selfish gratification”.
The woman told the court she never consented and told him to stop, but Hansson stopped her, saying, “I know you like rough.”
Mr. Cook said the woman kept up appearances about their friendship for weeks when Hansson told her he would kill himself if his partner found out what had happened.
The woman told friends that Hansson forced himself on her before reporting it to the police in April 2020.
Mr. Cook said Hansson sent the woman photos of herself without a shirt and “secret messages about seeing her in a bikini and how it made his dick hard”.
He argued that the jury could not find any motive for the woman to lie.
Defense attorney Michael Bonasia said Hansson did not need to explain why the woman would make up the charges.
“Maybe, just maybe, it’s because she was dealing with the embarrassment of sleeping with (a guy) who had been in a relationship for a while; maybe she got back for some hurtful messages he sent; maybe it was out of anger. We don’t know,” he added.
Bonasia said the woman messaged Hansson many times after the encounter, including providing “intimate details about fetish life”, once saying she was “butt naked in bed with a man”.
“These are actions by someone inconsistent with rape,” Bonasia added.
The jury has withdrawn to consider its verdict.