Don’t delay celebrity agent’s rape sentence, court told

The rape case of former agent to the stars Ralph Carr is not so exceptional that he should be allowed to appeal before being sentenced, a prosecutor has argued.

The man who managed the careers of AFL champion Dustin Martin and pop star ex-wife Tina Arena is seeking to stay his sentence for rape and sexual assault.

Carr was in July found guilty by a Victorian County Court jury of assaulting a younger former employee at his Melbourne home in March 2023.

His identity was kept secret for close to three years but the suppression order lifted earlier in August.

At a hearing on Tuesday, Carr’s barrister Dermott Dann KC said his client maintained his innocence.

Dann accepted judges only granted a stay on sentence in exceptional cases but said Carr’s case fell into that group.

Issues with the complainant’s evidence alongside Carr’s declining mental health meant the judge should exercise his rare power, he said.

“This is the first time I’ve made (a stay on sentence) application in 35 years,” the barrister told the judge.

“I feel this is the most obvious miscarriage of justice I have ever seen in that time.”

But prosecutor Matthew Fisher accused the King’s Counsel of being “entirely inappropriate” and trying to garner media attention with his “emotional speech”.

“It does not assist Your Honour at all,” Fisher told the judge.

The prosecutor instead argued there was nothing exceptional about Carr’s case and the jurors were open to reach the verdicts they did.

The victim gave evidence over five days and was cross-examined extensively by an experienced barrister, Fisher said.

The jury heard the complexities in her evidence, the submissions from the parties and the directions from the judge and still reached the guilty verdicts, the prosecutor said.

Dann had earlier pointed to 16 different pieces of evidence, mostly centred on what he argued were inconsistencies in the victim’s account and issues with her credibility.

“Anyone who was in this court and saw the complainant give evidence should be very, very concerned, very uncomfortable about the guilty verdicts,” Carr’s lawyer argued.

Any person comfortable with the jury’s decision had “lost sight of what justice is,” he said.

In advocating for a short sentence, Dann has argued Carr’s mental health issues would make his time in custody more burdensome and the offending lasted “one second”.

In response, Fisher accepted the celebrity agent was a man of prior good character and he had suffered some additional punishment in the form of media and public scrutiny.

He also accepted Carr had diagnosed mental and physical health conditions but noted he had refused to accept medical treatment and hospital transfer while in custody.

Fisher did not dispute that Carr had contributed to society through his role in the entertainment and sporting industries, and that he had helped young people get their start.

But he also noted the victim was one of those young people and none of Carr’s supporting references had come from any of his young female employees.

The hearing will continue on Wednesday.

Support is available by calling 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service on 1800 211 028.

- AAP