A KOROIT man has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of rape after he met a woman on Facebook.
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Anthony Cook, 42, of Commercial Road, entered his not guilty pleas in the Warrnambool County Court on Tuesday.
His lawyer Sophie Parsons said in her opening address to the jury of seven women and five men that the question the case relied on was whether the events took place in the way the woman claimed.
Mr Cook said things did not.
Ms Parsons said Mr Cook explained there was consensual sex but not in the way the woman alleged.
“The question is whether you believe her beyond reasonable doubt,” she said.
“Her credibility and reliability are in dispute,” she said, urging the jury to be skeptical and use their common sense.
Crown prosecutor David Cordy said it would be alleged that three separate incidents led to the allegations.
The first was after Mr Cook went through messages on the woman's mobile phone and found text messages from her former partner.
It's alleged Mr Cook continued to have sex with the woman after she told him to stop.
The second incident is alleged to have occurred after the woman and a friend went out to a hotel.
Mr Cordy said Mr Cook became enraged, called the woman names, commented on the way she was dressed, said "only sluts go to hotels" and had sex with her.
On the third occasion, the woman had friends over for drinks, including her partner and he stayed the night in a separate room.
Mr Cook is alleged to have confronted her the next morning, abused her, told her he needed sex and even after she said he couldn't force her, he demanded she perform a sex act.
Mr Cordy said that in forceful terms Mr Cook told the woman to be quiet and to stop being weak.
The woman claimed Mr Cook put her in a sleeper hold and she had trouble breathing before Mr Cook had sex with her.
"He said he would always be the boss," the prosecutor alleged.
After that incident finished the woman sent a text message asking her former partner for help.
He called police.
The trial before Judge Felicity Hampel is expected to run for a couple of days and much of Wednesday is expected to be taken up by the evidence of the complainant.