A 30-year-old nurse accused of drugging, raping and sexually assaulting a woman while filming it has been refused bail.
The court heard the man, who can’t be identified, obtained the sedative drugs from his workplace and met the alleged victims on Tinder and Snapchat.
“We will allege that she participated in a drink with that man and whilst at the apartment the behaviour that is the subject of the charges … is alleged to have taken place,” Detective Superintendent Tony Fleming said.
“We will allege that as a consequence of being there, there was an impact on her consciousness and after she was able to gather her wit she left.
“She subsequently received some assistance from her family and also from a GP.”
Supt Fleming said police executed a search warrant at the apartment yesterday and located a phone containing images that “caused them concern”.
“They located property that will assist them with the investigation and that included electronic devices and some other drug material,” he said.
“The man was arrested at the scene and returned back to city police station.”
They included stupefying in order to commit an indictable offence, rape, sexual assault, unlawful stalking, observations or recordings in breach of privacy, supplying dangerous drugs, possession of a restricted drug and two counts of possessing dangerous drugs.
The court heard the accused man, who has no criminal history, has refused to hand over the security code to his phone, with the police prosecutor concerned about the risk of losing evidence if he was released on bail and was able to access cloud storage.
Magistrate Anthony Gett refused bail, on the grounds of the man being a danger to the community and the risk of reoffending being too high.
He is expected to appear again on August 24.
Appeal for other women to come forward
“The behaviour that the officers have seen on the phone have raised officer’s concerns about what may have happened involving other people,” Supt Fleming said.
“A small number of other women in particular.
“This behaviour could have happened over the last year or two. We can’t define exactly how many young women may be involved.
“At this stage it is probably less than five (other women), from what the officers identified.
“The man involved is described as a man of African appearance. He is about 160 centimetres tall. He is described as very muscular and about 30 years of age.
“Anyone who may have been or think they may have been subjected to an incident similar to what I have described in those charges.
“We’d ask that you contact police via our PoliceLink 131 444 or CrimeStoppers 1800 333 000.”
Supt Fleming said officers understood it was a sensitive topic and “young women should be able to go about their lives without having to fear for this type of behaviour”.
