Consultant accused of raping woman he met on a dating website

CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses an alleged sexual assault.

A consultant has been handed nine charges alleging he raped a woman he met on a dating website, with the alleged assaults continuing even after she started crying.

On Friday (17 June), the ACT Magistrates Court also heard allegations 50-year-old Cameron James Tannock had threatened to release recordings taken of their encounter.

Court documents allege the pair began talking over the dating website RedHotPie earlier this month before meeting up on 13 June and driving back to his house.

The woman alleged she asked for a safe word, but he replied: “You don’t get a safe word when I’m punishing you”.

According to the documents, she later told police she believed he “took all her rights as soon as she walked in the door”.

Mr Tannock allegedly raped her then used a belt to strike her, which caused her severe pain so she said “stop” and started to cry.

However, he allegedly told her “Get the f-k back down, you don’t have a f-king choice” and she complied because she thought she was unable to leave. She continued to cry afterwards.

He allegedly raped her several more times and filmed her with a mobile phone at times. Afterwards, he drove her back to her car.

She went to police the next day. When police spoke to Mr Tannock he admitted having sex with the woman and told them he originally said “no” to a safe word, but then they both agreed to use the word “red”.

He also denied the woman asked him to stop when he struck her with the belt, saying instead that she wanted him to keep going, but he stopped because he thought she was in distress.

Mr Tannock, who works full-time as a consultant, was arrested on Thursday (16 June) and applied for bail when he appeared in court the next day.

His lawyer Satomi Hamon of Aulich argued he had never made the threats to post the recordings online, he thought his encounter with the woman was consensual and he had no need to contact her again.

Prosecutor Julia Epstein opposed bail, saying the court documents allegedly showed a “level of depravity and violence” and the 12 serious charges he had been handed provided him with significant motivation to potentially interfere with evidence.

But Magistrate Louise Taylor said he had no criminal history and the prosecutor could not point to any behaviour that demonstrated an inability to comply with bail conditions.

Ms Hamon said her client would plead not guilty to all charges, which included nine counts of sexual intercourse without consent and one count of unlawfully confining a person.

He was released on bail conditions that included surrendering any devices capable of accessing the Internet, living in Weston and not contacting the complainant.

The case was adjourned to 26 August.