A woman accused of raping a teenage girl has claimed in court that the alleged victim’s mother demanded $50,000 days before a sexual assault complaint was made to police.
Lee Kathleen Hili, 32, elected to testify in her defence, along with her husband and co-accused Christopher Luke Hili, at their trial before Brisbane Supreme Court today.
The couple was accused of what the prosecution called a “non-consensual threesome” with an intoxicated 15-year-old girl following a party at their Gold Coast region home in December 2021.
Lee Hili told the court today that a car approached their front gate at night about 12 days after the party.
“Some lady jumped out … she said ‘pay $50k or you’re going to be in trouble’,” Lee Hili said.
Lee Hili said the woman then jumped back in her car and she did not think much of it at the time as she believed the woman was connected to the former owners of the couple’s home.
“As Chris is a mechanic and I do the paperwork, registration numbers are something we just remember,” Lee Hili said.
A few months later, following a police search of their home, Lee Hili said she recognised the car’s registration plate at a car park and saw the same woman enter the vehicle.
“Our lawyers had asked us to look through (the girl’s) friends on Facebook. I saw it was her mother,” Lee Hili said.
Crown prosecutor Melissa Wilson later told the jury that the alleged victim had no knowledge of the alleged demand for money.
The girl had testified that she had woken up in the couple’s bed while being sexually assaulted by Christopher Hili while Lee Hili stroked her hair and told her to be quiet.
She said she was later sexually assaulted by Lee Hili while a pornographic movie was playing on a nearby TV.
Defence barrister Gregory McGuire asked Lee Hili if she had sexually assaulted the girl or had been present while she was being assaulted.
“Absolutely not,” Lee Hili said.
She told the court she had just tried to calm the girl down after finding her in the couple’s bedroom and suffering from a panic attack.
Under cross-examination by Wilson, Lee Hili denied asking the girl about her sexual preferences and experience prior to the alleged assaults.
Lee Hili agreed Christopher Hili had smoked cannabis but said he did not have any on the night in question and did not supply it to the girl.
Wilson asked Lee Hili about images from their home security camera showing Christopher Hili outside their bedroom while naked about 2.50am after the party.
Lee Hili said her husband left the room to have a smoke and urinate outside, as they were on a large block of land far from neighbours.
“This was after the rape?” Wilson said.
The jury was due to hear a closing statement tomorrow from Christopher Hili’s barrister Scott Lynch.
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