Son of Sydney nightclub owner convicted of raping young woman behind club granted retrial
The son of a Sydney nightclub owner who "raped a teenage girl in a Kings Cross alleyway" and was jailed for three years will be released from custody after being granted a retrial.
A court heard last year that Luke Andrew Lazarus allegedly bragged about taking the virginity of the 18-year-old woman he is alleged to have raped behind his father's club Soho in May 2013.
The son of a Sydney nightclub owner who 'raped a teenage girl in a Kings Cross alleyway' and was jailed for three years will be released from custody after being granted a retrial. Photo: 7News
Today, the Court of Criminal Appeal ruled he would be granted a retrial, stating its reasons would "be handed down in due course."
During his sentencing hearing in March 2015, Lazarus said he felt his life was "completely destroyed" when news he had "sexually assaulted a young woman" broke.
He lives in the exclusive suburb Vaucluse with his family, and his father Andrew Lazarus runs a number of venues, including Soho in Kings Cross and the Eastern Hotel in Bondi Junction.
"I had the world at my feet," Lazarus said during sentencing.
"My life, at least in Australia, has been completely destroyed and now I have to live the rest of my life knowing every single person in Australia, or at least Sydney, knows I have been convicted of a sex offence," he cried.
Photo: AAP
Lazarus repeatedly broke down as he conceded he felt an "inflated sense of power and entitlement" while at Soho.
"I believe in Soho I had more confidence than any other place."
But he didn't agree this self-assurance would have meant he thought his victim was consenting when she wasn't.
"I still 100 per cent state that I believe everything that happened that on that night was consensual."
Photo: AAP
The young woman had told her trial she had tried to leave after Lazarus kissed her but that he had said "No, stay".
Soon after he told her, "put your f***king hands on the wall, get on the floor and arch your back", the court heard.
Scared, she complied.
After allegedly sexually assaulting her, Lazarus "told her to add her name to a list of conquests he kept".
In a victim impact statement read to court the woman said: "I never knew what it was like to feel so helpless".
"I'll never be who I was... A part of me died that day, the part that trusted others, the part that saw the good in everyone."
In the weeks leading up to the alleged attack, Lazarus, the court heard, had ended a relationship with an American girl with whom he was "obsessed" because she would not uphold his Greek family's traditions and they didn't approve.
Psychiatrist Dr Chris Ricard-bell said Lazarus was suffering from adjustment disorder as a result of the break up.
News break – February 19
