Doctor fights rape charges

By Adrian Lowe, the Age
Updated November 7 2012 - 3:09am, first published September 29 2010 - 12:37pm

A BENDIGO doctor accused of raping a woman seven times in one night conceded to police that she was “out of it’’ at the time but believed he did nothing wrong, a jury has heard.Arvind Sharma, 37, is accused of molesting the woman in late 2006 after a night of drinking and nightclubbing.He is standing trial in the Victorian County Court in Melbourne on seven counts of rape and three of indecent assault.Sharma and the woman were known to each other, and before the night of the alleged incidents had consensual sex up to four times, the trial has previously heard.In his 2006 record of interview, played to the jury yesterday, Sharma told detectives Danny McQuinn and John Dalton that he was shocked at the woman’s allegations and did not realise she had left his house until after police arrived and arrested him.He said the victim was “out of it’’, but not “comatose’’.“She was out of it. She wasn’t passed out, but she was out of it,’’ Sharma said. ‘‘She was drunk and I was drunk.’’Asked if the woman was consenting, Sharma replied: “By saying that, she didn’t say no. We were kissing, cuddling... in a drunk sort of way, so there was no ‘no way’ or anything like that.’’The seven rape charges Sharma faces include three of digital rape, two of digital anal rape and one of anal rape.Detectives asked if during previous occasions of sex, the woman had discouraged anal sex, and if so, why Sharma pursued anal sex on the night in question. Sharma told them she had, but on the particular night, “she didn’t object at all’’.“She wasn’t unaware of the situation,’’ he said. “If it was a problem, she would have corrected it. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t in a position to say no.’’The detectives said to Sharma that the woman maintained that she was unable to say no.He replied: ‘‘The whole dynamics of the situation, to ask someone if yes or no; that never happens, but she was consenting, to my assessment of the situation. There was no suggestion she didn’t want the situation.’’Sharma said he told the woman he was going to take photos, to which she mumbled: “Do whatever you want.’’Judge Frank Shelton told the jury they could expect to hear closing addresses from the Crown and defence today and retire to consider a verdict shortly after.

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