A pub baron’s son acquitted of raping a teenage virgin four minutes after they met has begun a new life at his father’s $24million beachfront country club.
Luke Lazarus, who was found not guilty of raping Saxon Mullins, then 18, in an alley behind his father Andrew’s Kings Cross nightclub, appears to have moved on from that sordid episode.
Mr Lazarus has been photographed at the Shoal Bay Country Club on Port Stephens which was bought by his family for an estimated $18million in 2016 and has undergone a $6million renovation.
He is seen posing open-shirted in a lift with a group including young women and standing proudly beside Lazarus Snr and two swimsuit-clad models at the venue.
Mr Lazarus, who has helped transform the popular venue in the New South Wales Hunter Valley region, was also pictured on a Brazilian beach at Christmas.
Luke Lazarus (centre) mas moved on with his life since being acquitted of raping a teenage virgin. He is pictured here at one of his father’s hotels, the Shoal Bay Country Club
Luke Lazarus, pictured with his father Andrew, has begun a new life working at the family’s Shoal Bay Country Club on Port Stephens, in the NSW Hunter Valley region
Luke Lazarus (right) clutching a coconut with friends on a beach in Brazil last Christmas
Shoal Bay Country Club, which was bought by Andrew Lazarus for about $18million, is described as ‘an iconic gathering place for all ages and occasions’
Shoal Bay Country Club is described by its operators as ‘an iconic gathering place for all ages and occasions.’
‘Nestled amongst the turquoise waters, white sandy shores and majestic headlands of Port Stephens, Shoal Bay Country Club is a venue like no other,’ the club states on its website.
‘Discover an eclectic oasis offering refreshing cocktails, delicious meals and vibrant live entertainment amidst an atmosphere of historic charm.
‘A visit to The Country Club is the ultimate East Coast experience, loved by locals and visitors alike for its incredible beachfront location, vibrant atmosphere and historical charisma.’
Andrew Lazarus has said: ‘I might be a bit biased, but I think I have built Australia’s best pub.’
A receptionist at the hotel said Luke Lazarus was not based at the venue but a photographer who attended its relaunch captioned a picture: ‘Luke and Andrew you have transformed this place amazingly.’
The 26-year-old was initially found guilty in 2015 of raping Ms Mullins two years earlier and spent 11 months in prison but was granted a retrial and acquitted last year by a judge sitting without a jury.
Luke Lazarus claimed his life as he knew it would be over after his conviction for rape, which was later overturned; he is pictured here on Lopes Mendes Beach in Brazil at Christmas
Luke Lazarus has worked for his father Andrew at a number of Sydney nightclubs and hotels
Saxon Mullins claims she did not give consent to Luke Lazarus when the pair had sex in 2013
Ms Saxon was intoxicated and on all fours in an alley when Mr Lazarus had anal sex with her about 4am on May 12, 2013.
Mr Lazarus complained at his original sentencing hearing that his life had been destroyed by Ms Saxon’s allegations or rape.
He had remained silent when she recently went on Four Corners to discuss her ordeal but he called 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Thursday to defend himself.
In that interview Mr Lazarus said he believed Ms Mullins had ‘wanted to be there’ when he had anal sex with the virgin four minutes after meeting her at Soho nightclub.
‘Her physical body language and everything she did physically told me that she wanted to be there,’ he said.
‘I witnessed in front of me a woman participating in sex.’
There had never been any dispute that Mr Lazarus had sex with Ms Mullins; the only issue was whether she gave consent.
Ms Saxon said she asked Mr Lazarus to stop. He said she did not.
‘I think this whole night’s regrettable,’ Mr Lazarus told Fordham. ‘At the end of the day I’ve been found innocent.
The Shoal Bay Country Club website states it is ‘nestled amongst the turquoise waters, white sandy shores and majestic headlands of Port Stephens’
Nightclub owner’s son Luke Lazarus held a party at his parents’ Vaucluse mansion after being acquitted of raping 18-year-old Saxon Mullins in an alley behind Soho at Kings Cross
Luke Lazarus is pictured here leaving Soho nightclub with Saxon Mullins, who accused him of anally raping her in a back alley on her first night out with friends in Kings Cross in 2013
‘It’s been found [that] my belief she was consenting was a reasonable one.’
Fordham told Mr Lazarus that in ‘the court of public opinion’ he was viewed as ‘scum’.
‘My impression of you, from a distance, is that you are a rich kid, you’re spoilt, you’re powerful, you’re someone who took advantage of a young 18-year-old girl who was drunk, who was a virgin, who didn’t want to lose her virginity by having anal sex with a stranger,’ Fordham said.
Mr Lazarus told the broadcaster he wrote a letter to Ms Mullins but did not send it.
‘I actually wrote one once but I was told I shouldn’t give it to her,’ he said.
Mr Lazarus grew up surrounded by wealth and privilege within a respected Greek business family in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. He had expected to one day be a CEO
At the time he had sex with Ms Mullins, Mr Lazarus had been studying and working casually as a barman for his father.
He had been working in marketing for beverage giant Lion immediately before his original conviction in March 2015. He resigned when initially found guilty.
Luke Lazarus’s father Andrew spent about $18million buying the Shoal Bay Country Club (pictured) and a further $6million renovating the iconic Port Stephens venue
Shoal Bay Country Club is described as ‘an iconic gathering place for all ages and occasions, with a range of Port Stephens’ best dining, entertainment and accommodation experiences’
Private schoolboy Luke Lazarus had the world at his feet before being charged with rape
‘I essentially had the world at my feet,’ Mr Lazarus told his sentencing hearing. ‘I had what was perceived to be, and what many others perceived to be, the best graduate position.
‘I could have been a CEO.’
He had lived most of his life in the family’s Vaucluse home, bought by his parents for $1.65 million in 1997 and listed for sale in October 2016 for between $7.5 million and $8.25 million.
Mr Lazarus went to Cranbrook, an exclusive Anglican independent day and boarding school at Bellevue Hill where fees for senior students are currently more than $35,000 a year.
The legal costs of defending two District Court trials and a hearing before the Court of Criminal Appeal were astronomical but fortunately for Mr Lazarus his family had the means to pay.
Andrew Lazarus is a director of Bondi Asset Management (BAM) and heads Eastern Hotels Group which owns highly successful pubs including The Eastern at Bondi Junction.
Luke Lazarus said that social media attacks had caused him to suffer anxiety and depression
Luke Lazarus picks up his passport while reporting on bail in the company of his father Andrew
Mr Lazarus’s hotel interests include the Vauxhall Inn at Granville, the Macquarie Hotel at Liverpool, purchased for about $25 million, and the El Toro Hotel and Motor Inn at Warwick Farm.
BAM has expanded into buying regional pubs including the Shoal Bay Country Club (estimated $18 million) and the Exchange Hotel at Hamilton ($6.6 million) in Newcastle.
Mr Lazarus had owned the Piccadilly Hotel at Points Point which contained Soho, which once traded as Yu, along with his EHG business partner Colin Parras.
His son once saw a bright future for himself in business but complained after his initial conviction that media coverage of his trial had destroyed those prospects.
Social media attacks had driven him to anti-depressants and sedatives.
‘My life, at least in Australia, has been completely destroyed and now I have to live the rest of my life knowing very single person in Australia – or at least Sydney – knows I have been convicted of a sex offence,’ Mr Lazarus told one hearing.
Following Luke Lazarus’s initial sentencing for rape, Saxon Mullins said her first reaction was ‘complex’ and she felt an unusual sense of guilt. Mr Lazarus was later acquitted
‘A visit to Shoal Bay Country Club is the ultimate East Coast experience, loved by locals and visitors alike for its incredible beachfront location, vibrant atmosphere and historical charisma’ according to the venue’s website
The former Lazarus family home at Vaucluse in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, where Luke has lived for most of his young life and where he held a party after his acquittal on a rape charge
During his two trials and Court of Criminal Appeal hearing, Mr Lazarus was represented by top Sydney barristers including Ian Lloyd, QC, Tim Game, SC, and Phillip Boulten, SC.
Mr Boulten, who represented Mr Lazarus at his last trial, said his client was a young man who had ‘advantages’ and might have had a ‘sense of over-entitlement’ when at Soho.
Mr Lazarus had admitted the encounter with the woman he was accused of raping was not the first time he had had sex in the laneway behind Soho.
Neither was it the first time he had had sex with a woman within minutes of meeting her.
He had also kept a ‘trophy list’ of sexual conquests, including the woman he was accused of raping, on his mobile phone.
Mr Boulten said Mr Lazarus was ‘a young, decent fellow’.
Nightclub owner’s son Luke Lazarus pictured the day after his acquittal on a rape charge
The Eastern hotel at Bondi Junction is one of Andrew Lazarus’s hugely successful pubs
The Shoal Bay Country Club is one of the flashest beachfront hotels in New South Wales
‘Never been in trouble before. Studying. Going about his life the way that you’d expect a young fellow might.’
Mr Lazarus’s first trial heard he had been bullied at school, in part due to his short stature, but that he enjoyed the power and privilege in later years of being his father’s son.
At his sentencing hearing three years ago, Mr Lazarus was asked if he agreed with a psychiatrist’s assessment that once inside Soho he gained a sense of ‘superiority and feeling of invincibility’.
Mr Lazarus: ‘To an extent.’
Mr Lazarus’s father told his son’s sentencing hearing that publicity over the matter had ruined his son’s reputation and damaged his own business.
Until his son’s conviction became public, Mr Lazarus Snr had not even told most of his family about the charges.
‘It was our intention and hope that the incident could remain quiet to protect Luke’s good reputation,’ Mr Lazarus said.
After Mr Lazarus’s conviction, his father believed his son would have to move overseas and change his name.
The view from the Shoal Bay Country Club on Port Stephens in the NSW Hunter Valley region
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