The original dossier containing historic rape allegations against former Attorney-General Christian Porter has been released by the Federal Court late on Thursday. The documents were written by a woman who alleged that Porter orally and anally raped her during a high school debating competition in 1988. These documents have been made public by the Court a year after the woman took her own life.
Porter strenuously denies the allegations, and in March 2021 he commenced defamation proceedings against the ABC for reporting on the existence of the allegations. The defamation case has since been settled and will be discontinued.
Previously, the dossier had been circulated to a bunch of politicians in February including Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Labor Senate leader Penny Wong and Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
Inside the dossier is an unsigned and unsworn account of the alleged incident, which her friends say the woman, known publicly as Kate, intended to hand to police. However the woman contacted police on the day of her suicide in June 2020 to say she would not pursue the claim. The dossier also includes a preface written by her friends posthumously.
In her written account of the night she was allegedly raped by Porter, the woman discussed how the two had met through high school debating, mentioning the comments Porter had allegedly made to her while they were hanging out.
“Not only was I ‘so smart and so pretty’ but I could do all the ‘good housewife things’,” she alleged in the document.
“He went on to explain that he would need a smart, pretty wife to help his political career, and then boasted that he would be Prime Minister of Australia one day. By the age of 50, he predicted.”
The woman also claimed that she suspected a date-rape drug was slipped in her drink, but that she has no evidence of it other than rumours of other students doing similar things.
She then alleged that she and Porter went back to her room, where he allegedly propositioned her for a “pearl necklace”.
“I did understand that it was a sex act of some kind,” she wrote.
Afterwards, the woman alleged that Porter then said she couldn’t “leave [him] with blue balls.”
The woman then alleged that Porter forced her to perform oral sex on him. She said she repeatedly told him no.
She alleged in the document that she vomited, and that Porter allegedly helped her clean up before bed. The two allegedly spent the night together.
The woman then alleged in the document that Porter anally raped her twice in the morning. She claims this caused her to bleed from her anus.
“But it was ok, I reassured myself, because we were going to get married – one day,” she alleged in her account.
The woman added in the document that she continued to believe this sentiment for several years.
Other documents in the dossier include a photo of Porter and the woman from the month of the alleged incident, as well as photos of diary entries which make reference to her time with Porter, which were claimed to have been written in the following month.
In their posthumously-written preface to the woman’s account of the alleged incident, her friends claim that because she was under the age of consent in 1988, the issue is not whether consent was given, but rather whether Porter really was there – something he categorically denies.
In the woman’s written account, she alleged that Porter wrote “Christian Porter was ‘ere Jan 88” in the steamy bathroom mirror while she was cleaning vomit off herself.
The day of the woman’s tragic suicide in 2020 was also described by her friends in their written statement within the dossier.
“On Wednesday June 24, Katherine rang the NSW Police to tell them she would not be proceeding with her case,” they wrote in the document.
“She cut her hair into the style that she has in the photo with Christian Porter in Appendix 1 of her statement (a hairstyle she had not had since 1988). And then she hung herself.”
Near the end of their five-page statement, her friends noted: “To date, defamation law and political inactivity have adversely impacted the ability of [the woman’s] claim to be properly addressed.”
Help is available.
If you require immediate assistance, please call 000.
If you’d like to speak to someone about sexual violence, please call the 1800 Respect hotline on 1800 737 732 or chat online.
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