Abortion blackmail led to rape, court told
A GOLD Coast teacher was “blackmailed into submission” by a colleague who threatened to reveal she had an abortion to the Catholic school they both worked at if she refused to continue having sex with him, a court has heard.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with three counts of rape after allegedly forcing himself on the woman he was previously in a relationship with on three occasions between December 2014 and February 2015.
The man pleaded not guilty to all charges on the first day of his trial by a jury of eight woman and four men in Southport District Court yesterday.
The court heard the woman became concerned about the man’s controlling behaviour soon after they began dating in April 2013.
Prior to the alleged rapes, the man tracked the woman’s menstrual cycle to determine when they should have sex to increase the chance of falling pregnant, the court heard.
Once the woman did become pregnant in August 2013 she decided to have an abortion in South Australia.
The court heard the man had already announced the pregnancy on Facebook.
Crown prosecutor Michael Connelly said the man then threatened to send an email to the staff and parents of pupils at the Catholic school where they both worked, saying she’d had an abortion.
The woman cancelled the appointment but eventually went through with an abortion while visiting family in South Australia in December that year.
The man repeatedly threatened to expose the woman and release explicit videos and photos of the pair if she wouldn’t keep having sex with him and attempt to fall pregnant again, the court was told.
Mr Connelly said the South African-born man proposed to the woman and the day before they signed papers for the contract of sale for a home issued an ultimatum to either marry him, become “friends with benefits” or a third option he described as “worse than the worst thing you can imagine”.
“He effectively blackmailed her into submission,” Mr Connelly said.
The trial continues today.