Former Cricket Australia executive guilty of sexually assaulting two men
Save articles for later
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.
Former Cricket Australia executive Timothy Whittaker faces jail time after being found guilty of sexually assaulting two men.
Whittaker, 38, had pleaded not guilty to two charges of intentionally sexually touching two men without their consent in March 2019 and in January 2016.
Timothy Whittaker arriving at court on Thursday.Credit: Justin McManus
Both victims told Melbourne Magistrates’ Court a strikingly similar account of waking after a night of heavy drinking to find Whittaker touching them. Both men said Whittaker then pretended to be asleep when they discovered they were being assaulted.
Whittaker had been spokesperson for Cricket Australia during some of the organisation’s biggest public relations crises, including its handling of the sandpaper scandal in 2018 and the pay dispute between players and administrators in 2017.
In 2019, he resigned to take up a new role with the International Cricket Council; his last day coinciding with the end-of-season party on March 15.
The court heard after the party, a group of colleagues went to a pub and then to Whittaker’s Abbotsford apartment for more drinks.
One of the victims was a former Cricket Australia colleague, who had fallen asleep on Whittaker’s couch and later woke up sexually assaulted in Whittaker’s bed.
In the 2016 case the victim went back to Whittaker’s house to sleep after drinking at a pub on January 8. He woke to find Whittaker sexually assaulting him.
The complainant in the 2016 case reported the matter to police in December last year after being told of another alleged incident involving Whittaker.
Magistrate Timothy Gatsutto said he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the sexual assaults were proven.
Gatsutto said he dismissed doubts raised by Whittaker’s defence lawyer Dermot Dann, KC, about the credibility of the two victims.
He said the victim in the 2019 matter had tried to report the assault to friends after leaving Whittaker’s apartment, had taken contemporaneous notes on his iPhone in the Uber from Whittaker’s apartment, reported the assault to friends later that day, and reported the assault to human resources and police two days later.
“I did not accept any alternative hypothesis consistent with [Whittaker’s] innocence is reasonably open on all of the evidence,” Gatsutto said.
Dann urged Gatsutto to consider an alternative to prison for Whittaker, arguing Whittaker should be assessed for a community corrections order.
He said the De La Salle old boy had been of good character, had a long involvement in charity and volunteer work, and the incidents came after periods of severe work stress including the 2018 ball-tampering scandal.
The hearing continues.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
Our Breaking News Alert will notify you of significant breaking news when it happens. Get it here.
Most Viewed in National
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article