A woman who was found dead on a New South Wales beach in 2011 suffered injuries from a violent sexual act, a court has heard today.
Lynette Daley, 33, was found dead on Ten Mile Beach in January 2011. Paul Marix, 47, has been charged with aggravated sexual assault in company and hindering the discovery of evidence, and Adrian Attwater, 42, has been charged with manslaughter and aggravated sexual assault in company.
A court has heard today how Daley had suffered severe lacerations to her genitals from a violent sexual act using the hand or fist.
Crown prosecutor Philip Strickland SC told the court, as reported by the ABC, that “the lacerations to the vagina were very significant. They caused significant bleeding, a significant loss of blood.
Allegedly, Daley, Marix and Attwater had been drinking “a lot of alcohol” on a camping trip and engaged in a sex act on a mattress. It’s then alleged that the men dragged “a dead or dying” Daley to the ocean to wash.
Attwater claims Daley had a seizure, went limp and stopped breathing after five minutes in the ocean, News.com.au reports.
The crown denies this. “When she goes into the ocean… she doesn’t walk in there unassisted, she doesn’t frolic in there, she is dragged or carried,” said Strickland.
The court heard excerpts from Attwater’s interview with the police.
“These things just happened, man,” he said. “Girls will be girls and boys will be boys.”
He also allegedly denied dragging Daley to the beach, telling police “no, she was all fucking sweet.” He said that he’d noticed a bit of blood on his hand after “a wild sex session” and that “the smell was so terrible we were going into the ocean to wash.”
The Crown denies that it would have been possible for Attwater to not notice Daley’s injuries, and that the alleged assault “substantially or significantly contributed to her death.”
An autopsy report showed that Daley had a small amount of methylamphetamine in her system and a blood alcohol reading of 0.303, meaning that she was “grossly intoxicated” and could not give consent.
It’s expected that about 50 witnesses will be called in during the trial, which is expected to last five to six weeks.
