A brisbane auditor was found dead in a Cairns hotel room, bound to the bed by his ankles and wrists, with a rope around his neck, a gag ball in his mouth, and a spandex hood covering his face, a trial has heard.
At the start of her manslaughter trial in the Cairns Supreme Court on Monday, sex worker Madeleine Joan Lewin, 34, pleaded not guilty to the unlawful killing of Brisbane service station auditor Anthony Michael Brady, 52.
Ms Lewin is representing herself in the trial, which is expected to run into next week.
Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane during his opening address, said Mr Brady was a client of Ms Lewin and that his likely cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation.
He alleged that Mr Brady being adorned with those items and being tied in such a way that he could not move, and the number of mechanisms that restricted his breath, including being face down, meant the sex act Mr Brady and Ms Lewin were engaged in was “inherently dangerous”.
“In those circumstances, there just wasn’t the reasonable care and skill by Ms Lewin when having the oversight of that bondage arrangement,” Mr Crane said.
“This is, members of the jury, a clinical legal and community test. It’s not one about morality.”
Mr Crane said there must have been some naivety on the behalf of Mr Brady when being subjected to what were consensual acts.
“He was going to have to go back to his wife the next day with abrasions around his neck and wrists,” Mr Crane told the jury.
The court heard there was also a whip on the bed, lubricant, and a used glass dildo between Mr Brady’s legs.
Mr Crane said Mr Brady was in Cairns auditing service stations and had arrived on the Monday, August 10, 2020.