Former Love Machine owner faces court over alleged rape of employee

A former owner and marketing manager of Love Machine nightclub has faced court over allegations he repeatedly raped and assaulted a female employee after the pair partied in a private booth at the Prahran venue in 2020.

Andrew Varigos, 38, has been charged with three counts of rape and one count of assault, but entered a plea of not guilty in the County Court of Victoria on Wednesday.

During his opening summary, prosecutor Nick Batten told the court the employee, who was in her early-20s and worked at Love Machine, celebrated the birthday of manager Max Porritt on January 12, 2020.

Despite working on the night, Batten said the woman consumed cocaine and marijuana at the function, which was attended by Varigos and several other staff members.

The pair left the club after 5am and briefly attended the home of a DJ in South Yarra, before heading to Varigos’ apartment nearby.

It is alleged that Varigos initially offered his bed to the woman and agreed to sleep on the couch, before forcing the woman to perform a sexual act and then having intercourse without consent.

The jury was told Varigos had scratched and bitten the woman, forced her head into a pillow and “grabbed her around the neck in a choking action”.

The woman repeatedly asked Varigos to stop and reminded him that he had a partner, according to Batten’s opening summary.

“She immediately got out of bed and left the apartment … she took a photo of herself at 6.48am in the lift and a video in the car park after,” Batten said.

The woman took several other photographs following the incident to document her alleged injuries, according to Batten, but did not report the matter to police until February 2021.

Philip Dunn, KC, acting for Varigos, said his client did not deny having sex with the woman, but would argue it was consensual.

Dunn said many details in the police brief against Varigos would be “hotly disputed”, including the veracity of photographs taken by the complainant and her movements before and after the alleged rape.

“When it happened, how it happened and how long it happened are in dispute,” Dunn said during his defence summary.

He said the defence would also challenge claims by the woman that she lost her memory about midnight, almost six hours before the alleged rape.

Dunn told the jury that by concealing her phone from detectives and delaying her complaint by more than a year, the woman could have compromised the police investigation.

He said some jurors could be familiar with Love Machine after a security guard and a patron were killed outside the club in April 2019, when the venue on Little Chapel Street was sprayed with automatic gun fire.

The case continues on Thursday, when the complainant is expected to provide evidence in closed court.

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