Burchell claimed this was the way the pair communicated, and it was “work terminology” for how busy it was.
Huggins took Burchell through the evidence of three complainants, including through the events leading up to the evening he was alleged to have raped a backpacker who worked in the hotel’s bar.
Burchell claimed he had been drinking with friends before returning to the hotel in February 2020, and started to close up the bar when a co-worker noticed someone had broken into the pub.
He told the court a man had climbed through the ceiling and kicked out a fan to gain entrance, and had started “robbing the place”.
Burchell said he ejected the man, and they had a “tussle” in the car park, before the man yelled he would get “reinforcements” from the oval across the road from the pub and stormed off.
It was that moment, Burchell told the court, the backpacker pulled up in a car and told him to get in.
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Burchell said the pair had consensual sex at her home, and Huggins asked if it had ever crossed his mind he was the woman’s employer.
“She’s a mature enough woman that I thought it would be OK,” he replied.
“Yes, but you’re the general manager of the Roey,” Huggins said.
“No, I wasn’t thinking that way,” Burchell said.
When asked if he was thinking about his family and his partner, who had moved out from their home just two days prior, Burchell replied: “Not really.”
Burchell alleged the woman invited him for sex again just 24 hours later – a claim she denies.
Burchell told the court that about a month later, he told the woman he had reunited with his partner, and while she promised not to tell his wife about their relationship, they stayed friendly – even attending Broome’s Mardi Gras festival together some time later.
“You completely trusted [the complainant] that she wouldn’t say anything to your partner?” Huggins asked on Tuesday.
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