A Sydney businessman accused of sex offences was part of a Game of Thrones-type world where adults explored the boundaries of their sexuality and achieved pleasure through pain, a court has heard.
Liam Gordon Murphy, 42, has faced a pre-committal hearing at Downing Centre Local Court as he fights allegations he sexually assaulted two women he met via online fetish forum Fetlife.
His lawyer Charles Waterstreet on Friday said the disputed incidents in 2015 occurred in the context of a Bondage, Domination, Sadism and Masochism (BDSM) world.
Liam Gordon Murphy, 42 (pictured) is accused of sexually assaulting two women
Mr Waterstreet said the law applied but in an atmosphere where there was a ‘pantomime of pleasure and pain’.
‘Your Honour is dealing with an area where society is upside down and in the context of a FetLife, BDSM world not unlike a Game of Thrones, so that the rules of society are not in operation but are governed by those agreements among members,’ he said.
‘We’re dealing with players, men and women, who are seeking to explore the boundaries of their sexuality in this Game of Thrones atmosphere where pain is the doorway to sexual pleasure.’
Mr Waterstreet said evidence indicated the relationship between Murphy and the first alleged victim included requests by her ‘to be really scared, to be really punished’.
She told Murphy he didn’t rape her in text messages before she went to police and Mr Waterstreet wants to question her about those exchanges during the committal hearing in 2018, he said.
Court heard the 42-year-old was part of an online world where adults explored the boundaries of their sexuality and achieved pleasure through pain (picture from Game of Thrones)
Mr Murphy’s (pictured) lawyer told the court they were dealing with ‘an area where society is upside down and in the context of a FetLife, BDSM world not unlike a Game of Thrones’
He also wants to ask about her relationship with another man, and whether he hypnotised her some time before she made a statement about Murphy to police.
Murphy, who his lawyer said was ‘the most popular man on Fetlife’, was charged in 2016 with three counts of aggravated sexual assault and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in relation to the first woman.
He was further charged this year with sexual intercourse without consent after a second woman made a complaint.
Mr Waterstreet said he wanted to cross-examine the second alleged victim at the committal hearing about whether she was in a master-slave relationship with another man when she went to police.
Magistrate Christopher Halburd is yet to decide who will give evidence at the March 2018 committal hearing, and on what issues.
He granted a bail variation to Murphy so he can travel interstate as part of a business he has started.
Mr Waterstreet said Murphy lost his well-paid job at a well-known company and has been unable to work as an employee.
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