Woman tried to escape alleged rape

Fraser Pope

Fraser Pope is contesting rape charges.
Source: HWT Image Library




A WOMAN claimed she tried to flee before being raped by a man in a South Melbourne alleyway after her alleged attacker spent the day at a 2010 Grand Final replay function linked to Collingwood Football Club, the County Court has heard.


Fraser James Pope, 23, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of rape in relation to the October 3 incident and a jury today heard the alleged victim had told a friend she thought she had been raped.

The woman also told her female friend, who cannot be named because it may identify the complainant, that she had said ”no” to her alleged attacker but ”in the end, she decided to give up,” the court heard.

During a forensic examination at the Royal Women’s Hospital, Dr Angela Williams said the woman had identified a man named ”Fraser” as her attacker and recounted being forced into having sex.

”The guy forced me down the alley … I was trying to run away but he was a lot bigger, but he forced me … I had to do it, he wasn’t going to let me leave,” the woman told Dr Williams, the court heard.

Dr Williams said she identified a number of grazes on the woman’s left knee and bruising on the right knee and elbow.

The female friend said the woman had told her she rejected an advance and had tried to get away but her ”instincts were to back down and not fight … that she would get out safer if she just gave in”.

The court had earlier heard the woman was ”quite drunk” at the Eve Nightclub in South Melbourne – where Mr Pope was also drinking, as were people connected to Collingwood.

A male friend of the woman told the jury he was concerned by a text message he received from her in the early hours of the morning.

After meeting up with the woman later that morning, he said he answered a call on her phone from a man named ”Fraser” hours after the alleged rape who said he had put the woman into a taxi cab.

Earlier this week, the jury heard Mr Pope had drunk eight beers and some shots at a football function on October 2 before attending Eve where he drank up to another eight drinks at the nightclub.

Crown prosecutor Chris Ryan, SC, said Mr Pope and the complainant ended up at a South Melbourne townhouse where a number of young men were present, including some connected to Collingwood.

Mr Ryan said the woman spent most of the time in a bedroom before leaving the house in the early hours of the morning.

She noticed Mr Pope walking beside her and told him she was going home, the jury was told.

Mr Ryan said Mr Pope asked the woman into a laneway and began to kiss her.

The jury was told Mr Pope then raped the woman and forced her to perform oral sex on him.

Mr Pope – who told police the sex was consensual – and the woman exchanged phone numbers and caught a cab together afterwards, the court heard.

Defence lawyer Malcolm Thomas has said the woman was lying about the rape and today put to her male friend that he was also lying about aspects of his evidence, a situation the friend denied.

The trial, before Judge Mark Taft, continues tomorrow.

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