By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
A WOMAN told a Supreme Court jury yesterday that she believed she was drugged at a bar before waking in a motel room with no memory of how she got there, as the attempted rape trial of Tamal Curry began.
The 29-year-old complainant testified before Justice Loren Klein that she later awoke at Smith’s Motel on East Street with Curry, 34, beside her and his genitals exposed.
Prosecutors allege Curry attempted to rape the woman at the motel on December 20, 2023.
The complainant, a high school mathematics teacher, said she and a colleague went to Shot O’Clock bar off Prince Charles Drive around 4pm that day to celebrate the end of the school term.
She said she drank two Kalik Gold beers and three shots but maintained that she was not intoxicated.
She said she was familiar with those drinks and had consumed them before without becoming incapacitated.
The woman said the bar was largely empty until Curry arrived with another man. She knew Curry from a previous business transaction in which she bought a car bumper from him.
She said she greeted him and that he sat about two feet away from her.
The complainant testified that she went to the bathroom several times with her colleague and left her drinks unattended while Curry and his companion remained nearby.
Her last memory from the bar, she said, was preparing to leave. She then recalled waking in an unfamiliar motel room around 8pm.The complainant said she had not consented to being taken there and that her pants had been removed. She said Curry told her she had asked to go to the motel, which she found strange because they would have had to pass her Sandilands Village apartment to get there.
The woman testified that Curry later changed his account and told her he had brought her there.
She said Curry asked to have sex with her and that she refused.
The complainant alleged that he then tried to force himself on her and that she fought him off for about 20 minutes.
She said Curry eventually went into the bathroom, allowing her to try to escape.
The woman testified that she went to her car, but Curry followed and got inside.
She said she warned him that he would not get far with the vehicle because it had a tracker.
The complainant said Curry then asked, “you want your car?”
She alleged that he slammed her head into the door area of the vehicle.
The woman said she suffered an injury to her forehead and presented the court with a photograph of the injury taken on her iPhone.
She testified that she ran from Curry and sought help from a nearby family, but they declined to intervene.
The complainant said her legs felt weak and she fell while running. Her clothes were also torn.
She eventually reached a nearby bar, where patrons assisted her.
The woman said that while at the hospital she checked a GPS tracking application and saw that her vehicle had passed her home and travelled through unfamiliar areas for about an hour before arriving at the motel.
She said Curry had told her that he drove her car because he was protecting her from driving.
The complainant also alleged that Curry told her she could not leave the motel room because he had already paid for it.
She said she believed she had been drugged.
During cross-examination by defence attorney Stanley Rolle, the complainant acknowledged that she had no direct evidence that she had been drugged.
She said her belief was based on her weak legs and her complete lack of memory between preparing to leave the bar and waking at the motel.
The woman testified that blood was drawn about 12 hours after the alleged incident. She said she believed she would have been drugged sometime between 4pm and 6pm and that she went to hospital around 2am after police instructed her to do so.
Mr Rolle challenged her account of leaving her drinks unattended, pointing out that her police statement said she had never left them unattended that night.
The complainant maintained her testimony.
She also rejected the defence suggestion that she was too intoxicated to drive and had asked Curry to take her home.
The woman said she could not remember getting into her car and denied asking Curry for a ride.
She also rejected the suggestion that she undressed herself.
The complainant accepted that she did not tell police in her statement that she had been unconscious.
She also acknowledged that she did not specifically tell officers Curry had prevented her from leaving the motel room, but said she believed that could be understood from the circumstances she described.
The woman said she had previously exchanged text messages with Curry during the car-bumper transaction and that he continued messaging her afterwards, although she did not respond.
She said she was not alarmed when Curry arrived at the bar.
The complainant denied defence suggestions that her allegation was untrue and that Curry had not attempted to rape her.
She testified that she woke with Curry lying beside her with his genitals exposed and that at some point he moved on top of her.
The woman said she identified Curry as her alleged assailant in a 12-person police photo line-up on March 2, 2024.
Basil Cumberbatch and Danielle Capron are prosecuting the case.
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