EXCLUSIVE
A man accused of encouraging three friends to gang rape a woman he met on Tinder has told a jury the alleged victim agreed to group sex.
Adam Kabbout took the witness stand at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Thursday to give his version of what happened on the night the woman says she was raped.
The 26-year-old is on trial alongside Omar El-Sayed, 25, Rami Katlan, 26, and Mohammed Ali, 21, who have all pleaded not guilty to a range of offences.
Kabbout is charged with six counts of aggravated sexual assault in connection with what happened at the woman’s apartment in Belmore, south-west Sydney, in the early hours of 16 April 2022.
El-Sayed, Katlan and Ali are charged with two counts of sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of aggravated sexual assault in company.
Kabbout did not have sexual relations with the alleged victim, but the Crown says he encouraged the other three men to repeatedly rape her as part of a joint criminal enterprise.
El-Sayed, Katlin and Ali, none of whom had met the 23-year-old woman before going to her apartment, insist that any sex they had with her was consensual.
Kabbout, who works for a kitchen installation company, said Thursday that he had matched with the woman on Tinder and that they had communicated via Snapchat for about eight months.
A man accused of encouraging three friends to gang rape a woman he met on Tinder told jurors the alleged victim agreed to group sex. Adam Kabbout is pictured outside court on Thursday
“She seemed like a very outgoing girl,” he said.
“She seemed very friendly, very funny, very direct about the sexual topic that interested her. A very happy, calm and relaxed person.”
Kabbout said the woman sent him explicit photographs and videos of herself, which he found arousing, and he sent her images of his genitals.
She expressed interest in “fetishes,” including group sex, “rough sex,” and BDSM (bondage/domination/submission/masochism).
“She was very detailed about the things she liked,” he said. “I like normal things.”
‘She told me she was interested in group sex and wanted to experience it someday in the future.’
On the night of the alleged rapes, Kabbout, El-Sayed, Katlan and Katlan’s brother Yazan (who is not charged with any crime) watched Souths beat the Bulldogs in a Good Friday NRL match at Olympic Park.
They were later joined by Ali and were driving through south-west Sydney when Kabbout began exchanging Snapchat messages with the woman.
Omar El-Sayed (above), Rami Katlan and Mohammed Ali have pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of aggravated sexual assault in the company of a man.
Kabbout said that when one of the group asked him who he was messaging, he said it was a girl he was planning to “meet up with.”
“I think the conversation got to a point where I said she might be interested in group sex, too,” he said.
‘One of them said, “Ask her if she’s interested,” and I proceeded to ask her.’
A series of Snapchat messages that Kabbout said immediately followed that conversation with his friends were presented to the court.
“That’s what they like,” Kabbout wrote.
When the woman replied, “Really?”, he replied, “Yes.”
Woman: ‘Eep. Maybe not, to be honest.’
Kabbout: “They’re just three guys”
Woman: ‘I don’t know, sorry LOL’.
Kabbout: ‘They look like me, hahaha.’
Woman: ‘Hahaha, eh, tempting, but maybe not.’
Referring to the phrase “that’s what they like,” Kabbout told the jury he had continued to suggest to the woman that she would like to have sex with his friends.
“Before that sentence, we actually had a discussion about what my colleagues were willing to do,” he said.
“And I told her that maybe they would be willing to have group sex, to hook up with her.”
In the hours before the alleged rapes, Kabbout and the woman sent each other Snapchat messages that prosecutors say included a suggestion that she have group sex with his friends. (A reproduction of their messages based on court evidence is shown above.)
Kabbout said he told friends the woman had not accepted the invitation to have group sex, but he still thought it was a possibility.
“I told them I would go myself and ask her again if she was interested,” he told the jury.
Kabbout said that shortly after arriving at the woman’s apartment they had a brief conversation before she led him to her bedroom.
“She went straight for my belt,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting it. There was no talk of anything sexual.”
“I said, ‘I’m not in the mood tonight.’ She said, ‘Bring the boys.'”
Kabbout said El-Sayed arrived alone and while he was in the woman’s room, the other three men entered the apartment.
When El-Sayed finished, Ali was next to enter the room, followed by Rami Katlan.
Kabbout said that when his friends expressed a desire to leave, he told them he wanted to speak to the woman one last time.
“I said, ‘We’re leaving now, are you OK?'” she told the jury.
“She told me to go fuck myself and gave me a dirty look. She seemed a little angry. I said, ‘Okay, then.’ I was very confused when she said that.”
Omar El-Sayed, Rami Katlan (above) and Mohammed Ali, none of whom had met the 23-year-old woman before going to her apartment, insist that any sex they had with her was consensual.
Asked if he had arranged for his friends to have sex with the woman without her consent, Kabbout said: “No, it was consensual. It was consensual from the beginning.”
The woman has previously denied discussing with Kabbout having sex with multiple men or wanting to “try a gang bang.”
She testified earlier this month that when Kabbout arrived at her home, they both went straight to her bedroom.
After showering, the woman said she found Kabbout and four other men outside her room.
“I went back to my room and locked the door,” she said. “Adam came in and I asked him, ‘Who are you? What are you doing here?’ and ‘I don’t want you here.'”
The woman said Kabbout left her room and heard the men outside having a conversation in a language she did not understand.
On the night of the alleged rapes, Kabbout, El-Sayed, Katlan and Katlan’s brother Yazan (who is not charged with any crime) watched Souths beat the Bulldogs in a Good Friday NRL match at Olympic Park. They were later joined by Ali (above).
Kabbout then returned to the bedroom with one of the group, he told the jury.
“He tells me something like, ‘Suck it,'” she said.
“I approached them and told them I didn’t want to and that I didn’t want to do anything, but I was scared and he told me to do it and so I did.”
The woman said that after Kabbout left the room, she had sex with the man.
“I just remember I kept saying I didn’t want this, I didn’t want to do this,” she said.
The woman said that when she told Kabbout she wanted the men to leave, he replied: “Not yet.”
She told the jury a second man entered the room and raped her in a similar way to the first and was then followed by a third.
The woman said she was crying while she was allegedly raped by the second and third men and continued to protest what they were doing to her.
The trial continues before Judge Leonie Flannery.
