An Indian man allegedly raped a budding lingerie model in Australia after he promised her a break in the industry posing as an employee in a fashion firm, a court was told Monday.
Using the pseudonym “James Carter,” the accused, Paul Rajendran used a fake profile on ‘MySpace’ to arrange a meeting with the 23-year-old woman in early March last year, Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Prior to the meeting in Sydney’s Central Business District, the pair exchanged a string of e-mails with Rajendran falsely claiming that he worked for the lingerie firm ‘La Perla’, it said.
During their meeting the duo consumed several drinks in the Tank Stream Bar about 7.30 p.m. and discussed the possibility of her modelling for the company, prosecutor Eric Balodis told jurors at beginning of Rajendran’s trial in Sydney on Monday.
Mr. Balodis alleged that shortly afterwards Rajendran took the girl to a office block in Hunter Street and before raping her he laid out ‘La Perla’ pictures on a desk.
“He told her afterwards ‘I’ll make you into a really good model if you don’t tell anyone’,” Mr. Balodis told the court.
She left the building shortly after 10 p.m. (local time) and walked to the Royal George pub, in George Street, where the police were called, the newspaper said.
A hospital examination later revealed the woman had a blood alcohol level of 0.14, almost three times over the legal drink-drive limit.
Rajendran also faces actual bodily harm charges relating to abrasions said to have been found on the woman's back after the attack, it said.
Shortly after the alleged attack, police issued a warning to aspiring models not to use the internet to get a start in the modelling industry.
Rajendran's lawyer told jurors the sex was consensual and that at no stage did he force the alleged victim to do anything against her will.
The woman appeared briefly in court via CCTV at the end of the first day of the trial, confirming she had been recommended to contact Rajendran via ‘MySpace’ by another woman and that they had exchanged emails.
The Downing Centre District Court trial continues before Judge Deborah Payne and is expected to last seven days.
