Belmore gang rape trial: Woman, 23, sent harrowing texts to friend the day after alleged assaults in her home

A woman who says she was raped in her home by three strangers told a friend the next day that her alleged attackers had been “very rude” when she asked them to leave the apartment.

Text messages between the woman and her friend were heard this week in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court, where the three men are on joint trial for rape.

The man the woman met on Tinder and had sex with the night she was allegedly raped is also on trial. Instead, the man is accused of taking three of his friends to her house.

Omar El-Sayed, 25, Rami Katlan, 26, and Mohammed Ali, 21, have pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of aggravated sexual assault in company.

Adam Kabbout has pleaded not guilty to six charges of aggravated sexual assault relating to events at the woman’s Belmore apartment in Sydney’s south-west on April 16, 2022.

The 26-year-old man did not have sex with the woman, but according to the Public Prosecution Service, he encouraged the other three men to repeatedly rape her as part of a joint criminal enterprise.

El-Sayed, Katlin and Ali, who had not met the 23-year-old woman before arriving at her flat, claim the sex they had with her was consensual.

The alleged rapes took place in the early hours of a Saturday. The woman gave her version of what happened in a series of text messages she sent to a friend on Sunday.

The two women were scheduled to meet later that day and discuss preparations, such as transportation options and whether they would wear full face makeup.

The friend texted saying that someone had asked her to bring “snacks” to an event they were all attending, followed by four skull emojis.

“By the way, there’s something I want to tell you,” the woman wrote at the time.

‘It’s not good. Something happened to me on Friday night.’

Friend: ‘What?’

Woman: ‘I was raped.’

Friend: ‘By whom?’

The woman then described that she had met Kabbout on Tinder a few months earlier and that when he came to her apartment that evening, she had taken a shower.

“And when I came out, his friends were in my house,” she wrote.

“It’s just been wearing me down lately and I didn’t know who to tell or what to do. Sorry I have to tell you now hahahaahh bad timing.”

Text messages between the woman and her friend were filed this week at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court, where Adam Kabbout, Omar El-Sayed, Rami Katlan, 26, and Mohammed Ali are on trial together for rape.

The woman described how she had met Kabbout on Tinder a few months earlier and how, when he came over to her apartment that night, she had taken a shower. “And when I came out, his friends were in my house,” she wrote.

When the friend asked her how many men had been in her room, the woman replied, “Four, counting him.”

“Only two actually fucked me,” she wrote.

“But when he came into the room, he saw me crying. I told them to leave, but they were very rude.”

That evening, Kabbout, El-Sayed, Katlan and another man had watched Souths win over the Bulldogs in a Good Friday NRL match at Olympic Park. Ali later joined them.

The now 25-year-old woman told the jury of nine men and five women on Wednesday that when Kabbout arrived at her home, they both went straight to her bedroom.

After showering, the woman said she found Kabbout and four other men outside her bedroom. The fifth man was with the group on the soccer field and is not accused of any wrongdoing.

“I went back to my room and closed the door,” she said. “Adam came in and I said, ‘Who are they? What are they doing here?’ and ‘I don’t want them here.'”

The woman said that Kabbout left her bedroom and that she heard the men outside having a conversation in a language she did not understand.

Kabbout then returned to the bedroom with one of the group members, she told the jury.

“He was like, ‘Suck him off,’” she said.

“I went closer to them and said I didn’t want to do it, I didn’t want to do anything, but I was scared and he said just do it, so I did.”

A woman who says she was raped in her home by three friends of a man she met on Tinder had talked about the possibility of group sex earlier that night. Adam Kabbout, who is accused of encouraging his friends to rape the woman, is pictured outside court

The woman stated that after Kabbout left the room, she had sex with the man.

“I remember just saying I didn’t want to do this, I didn’t want to do this,” she said.

The woman said that when she told Kabbout she wanted the men to leave, he replied, “Not yet.”

She told the jury that a second man entered the room and raped her in the same manner as the first, and that he was then followed by a third.

The woman said she was in tears as she was allegedly raped by the second and third men and continued to protest what was being done to her.

In text messages she sent her friend, some 36 hours after the alleged rapes, the woman wrote: “Only two during the whole affair.” About Kabbout, she said: “He came in for a moment and looked a bit.”

In her statement, the woman said she told her friend she had only been raped by two men because she felt “ashamed.”

The woman told the jury of nine men and five women that she tried to find Kabbout on Snapchat after the alleged rapes, but he blocked her.

“I just wanted to know if we were still friends,” she said. “I didn’t try to contact him.”

The woman said four men, including Kabbout, entered her room. “Only two actually fucked me,” she wrote. “But when he entered the room he saw me crying and I told them to leave and they were very rude.”

In the hours leading up to the alleged rapes, Kabbout and the woman had discussed via Snapchat the possibility of her having group sex with his friends.

“That’s what they’re working on,” Kabbout wrote.

When the woman replied, “Really?!!?!,” he replied, “Yes.”

Woman: ‘Eep. Maybe not honestly [to be honest].

Kabbout: ‘They are only 3 boys.’

Woman: ‘I don’t know. [I don’t know] ‘Their regret HAHA.’

Kabbout: ‘They look like me, lol.’

Woman: ‘Hahahaha eh tempting, but maybe not hm.’

After meeting Kabbout at her home, the woman asked him: ‘Do you have condoms??!!’

Kabbout said no, whereupon the woman asked him: ‘What size are you, lol.’

He replied, “Big,” and she said, “I’ll check it at home, but I think it’s normal.”

In another conversation, the woman asked Kabbout, “Do you smoke?” and then added, “Okay, fine. [because] I don’t f*** sober’ when he said he did that.

The trial before Judge Leonie Flannery continues on Monday.