The barrister for a famous Chinese actor, who has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman, yesterday told a Sydney court that the woman might have invented the story to avoid an argument with her husband.
However, the prosecution has dismissed the argument as “pure speculation” as Gao Yunxiang (高雲翔) faces fresh charges of sexual assault.
Gao had previously been charged with two counts of sexually assaulting a woman at the luxury Shangri-La Hotel in The Rocks area of Sydney in the early hours of March 27.
However, during a preliminary hearing the court heard that the actor now faced nine charges, including five counts of aggravated assault in company and depriving liberty, and two counts of aggravated indecent assault in company.
The case has received a significant amount of attention from the Chinese media, and the central local court in Sydney was packed with foreign journalists yesterday.
Gao is accused of committing the offenses with producer Wang Jing (王晶) after a “wrap-up party” for the TV series Love in Aranya, which was filmed in Sydney.
The court had previously heard that Gao, Wang and the woman had been celebrating with a production crew during a wrap-up party for the series.
The group dined at a Chinese restaurant and drank at the Gala KTV Karaoke Club on Bathurst Street in Sydney and police have said that the pair later forced intercourse and oral sex with the woman at Wang’s hotel room.
Gao’s barrister, John Korn, yesterday made an application for the woman at the center of the allegations to be compelled to give evidence at a committal hearing.
Citing “impossible to reconcile inconsistencies” in her evidence, Korn said he should be able to cross-examine her, because it went to “whether she is a good enough witness for the prosecution [to] even consider taking this matter to trial.”
In his submissions to Magistrate Beverley Schurr, Korn suggested to the court that the woman might have made up the allegations to “avoid a situation” with her husband.
Following the alleged incident, the woman reportedly arrived home after 4:30am and had an argument with her husband.
Korn told the court she had been taking “deliberate steps to avoid talking to” her husband during the night.
“Were [the allegations] made by her because of [a] genuine claim of sexual assault, or was it a situation where she stayed out all night [and] engaged in consensual, intimate behavior both at [a] karaoke bar and at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney and needed to avoid a situation with her husband?” he asked.
Korn has previously argued before the court that the woman had “amorous” contact with Wang when the group was at a karaoke bar.
However, she told police she had rejected his advances before she was assaulted by both men in the hotel room.
In June, Justice Lucy McCallum said some closed-circuit TV footage from the evening supported the crown case that the woman pulled away when Wang tried to kiss her during the evening, but other parts showed her kissing him and leaning into him.
Korn yesterday told the court the footage showed that in the hours leading up to the alleged assault, the woman had been “consensually engaging in kissing and cuddling” and “very affectionate behavior” with Wang.
However, prosecutor Daniel Waldmann opposed the application for cross-examination during committal, saying that Korn’s suggestion that the woman had made up the claims was “pure speculation.”
Even if the woman did engage in consensual “kissing and cuddling” with Wang, it did not follow that she would have consensual sex, Waldmann said.
He called it “a form of reasoning that ignores one’s common human experience and logic.”
“Even if somehow the counter narrative of consensual amorous acts between the complainant and Mr Wang were to be accepted, it does not follow that she thereafter engaged in consensual sexual intercourse with him and the applicant,” he said.
Schurr reserved her decision on the application until Wednesday next week.
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