Nathan Austin's trial on ANU accommodation rape charges begins

"I'm not letting you in if you want to have sex, I just want to be really clear," the woman allegedly said before the pair entered her Australian National University student accommodation.

"If you're coming back for sex, then you can go home."

Jurors heard the alleged warnings on Monday, the first day of Nathan James Austin's ACT Supreme Court trial.

Austin, aged in his early 20s, has pleaded not guilty to six counts of sexual intercourse without consent and one act of indecency without consent.

He was an Australian Defence Force Academy student at the time he allegedly committed the crimes.

In her opening address, prosecutor Melanie O'Connell told jurors that Austin and the woman, who was aged 18 at the time, ran into each other on the evening of November 25, 2021.

The pair had not seen each other or spoken in years.

Ms O'Connell said she anticipated the jury would hear and see the pair sat together, talked and kissed on the Mooseheads nightclub dancefloor.

Austin allegedly asked the woman to go home with him but she said no, instead suggesting the pair go back to her student accommodation, on the proviso they not have sex.

"I don't want to have sex at all," she allegedly told him, along with several other warnings about her physical boundaries for the evening as they walked home.

As the pair got into bed, she allegedly said "nothing below the waist".

Austin is accused of raping the university student in multiple ways throughout the night while she was both awake and asleep or half-asleep.

"I want to go to sleep," she allegedly said at one stage.

Ms O'Connell told jurors the woman made several protestations and excuses to avoid and stop having sex with Austin, including wanting to go to sleep, that she did not have contraception and that he was causing her pain.

"No, I don't want to," she also allegedly said.

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The following morning, the woman called Austin an Uber and the man went home.

"She broke down in tears," the prosecutor said.

The court heard the woman confronted Austin the following week when they ran into each other at Mooseheads before she reported the alleged incident to police a few days later.

In a brief opening address, defence barrister Margaret Jones SC told jurors many details of the night were agreed between parties.

They include Austin and the woman running into each other again at Mooseheads after knowing each other years prior, as well as the pair going home together and engaging in some form of sexual activity.

The barrister said what occurred in the woman's bed, and other things said and done throughout the night were in dispute.

"All the sexual activity that took place in [the alleged victim's] bed was consensual," Ms Jones said.

The court also heard evidence from the woman's housemate, the first person she told about the alleged incident.

"I think I had sex," the alleged victim texted her friend.

"It's a story and a half, some of it will make you want to kill the guy."

The woman's friend said the alleged victim eventually told her what had happened, including having only let Austin stay at their home as a "courtesy to a friend", intending him to sleep on a spare bed.

The witness described her friend as "traumatised", "she was holding onto me, she was shaking" and said the alleged victim was having a panic attack as she recounted the events of the November 2021 night.

The trial continues.

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