Nicholas Morse and Jack Cowton, both 22, have been committed to stand trial on 14 August 2018. Magistrate Stratmann said there was “sufficient weight of evidence to record a conviction” in the case of both accused.

The charges related to events that allegedly occurred on 15 July 2017 when a woman had gone with a friend to Morse’s Redan home where she was allegedly threatened with a sawn off shotgun, raped and sexually assaulted.

It is alleged that a gun had been held at the woman’s ribs and that threats to kill had been made about her and her child. It is alleged the woman had not met the two accused previously and that soon after arriving at the house, Morse had said to the complainant, “I haven’t had sex in a month and half and my balls are about to blow.”

Court evidence states the complainant alleges that while she was at the house, there were continual sexual comments and sexual behaviour from both accused, including Morse picking up a burger bun from food the complainant and the other woman had brought, and rubbing his genitals on it. 

The complainant stated she was continually called a “s**t and a c**t” by the two accused, that she was touched sexually without her consent, that the accused were making sexual “thrusting” actions near her and that she was sexually assaulted and later threatened at gunpoint and raped in a bathroom.

It was also stated that the woman who was at the house with the complainant had told her, “not to worry if they (the accused) joke about rape.” 

On Thursday, the court heard from the person who accompanied the alleged victim to the Redan house on 15 July 2017.

She said under oath that the complainant had seemed “fine”, had “antagonised the boys by calling them bitches”, had kissed Morse in the kitchen and that “she (the witness) knew the accused had a firearm but didn’t see it that night.”

Text messages and social media communication were the subject of cross and re-examination, with the Crown prosecutor stating he did not think the witness “was being honest with the court.”

Another witness, who had also been at the house, testified the accused Morse had the shotgun that evening and at one time, had pointed it in his direction. The witness said he “had put his arms up and played along”. 

Leading Senior Constable Andrea Morgan gave evidence that she had been called by the complainant’s mother on 17 July, in relation to a firearm assault. She said the mother had been very worried about her daughter and that the complainant had been “agitated, crying and genuinely, very frightened.”

She said the complainant had stated the three men at the house, including the two accused, “had lost it on Chronic (synthetic cannabis)” and “wouldn’t let her leave” and that she had been threatened with a double-barrelled firearm.

Morse will stand trial on 20 charges, including rape, sexual assault, using a firearm while committing an indictable offence, making threats to kill, possession of a firearm without a licence and possession of a sawn-off shotgun believed to be the proceeds of crime. He has pleaded guilty to three of the firearms offences and not guilty to the remaining charges.

Cowton has pleaded not guilty to six charges, which also include threats to kill and property damage.