Michael Schumacher’s family were criticised today for firing the F1 ace’s nurse months after she was allegedly raped at their villa.
At her alleged attacker’s trial today, her lawyer said she was ‘made to suffer a double blow’ when the Schumachers fired her a year after she claims she was sexually assaulted.
Australian race car driver Joey Mawson went on trial today in Nyon, Switzerland, for the 2019 incident.
Mawson is said to have raped the nurse twice in a bedroom at the 57-year-old German star’s mansion in Gland, near Geneva, on November 23, 2019.
The nurse had worked for the Schumacher family for six years, and belonged to their ‘inner circle of trust’, according to her lawyer, Patrick Michod, who said her dismissal from a job she ‘took pride in’ after the alleged attack was a ‘double blow’.
‘In all those years, there was never even the slightest accusation against her,’ he told the court during today’s trial.
‘During her time there she was dealing on a daily basis with the result of a tragic accident but besides her professional work her other aim was to protect the family.
‘She never said anything about what happened inside the residence, and she simply wanted to protect the Schumacher family, but she suffered a sexual aggression which was truly unjust.’
A text message read to the court by Mawson’s lawyer revealed the nurse feared for her job if news of the alleged attack became known, citing his friendship with Michael Schumacher’s son as a reason for concern.
Luc Vaney, representing Mawson read out the text from the victim to his client which read: ‘You are the best friend of his son. I don’t want to lose my work place.’
Australian race car driver Mawson went on trial today in Nyon, Switzerland, for the incident. Pictured: Mawson (right) seen outside court with one of his lawyers
Mawson is a close friend of Schumacher’s son, Mick Schumacher, 26 (pictured in 2016)
During the trial on Tuesday, the court heard that Mawson spent the evening with several of Schumacher’s employees, during which the nurse consumed a substantial amount of alcohol.
According to the indictment, she became so intoxicated that she was unable to stand, fell to the floor and was carried to her room, fully clothed, by staff. Prosecutors allege that the rape later took place in that room.
The nurse only complained about the incident two years after the alleged attack, when she was fired from her job.
The court heard that the nurse woke up naked and allegedly could not remember what had happened after the incident in 2019.
She then noticed blood on her bedsheets and felt pain in her vaginal and anal areas.
Later the nurse was asked to recall what happened to her and, breaking down in tears, she told the court: ‘I had worked for the family for six years and that night I had been working six days non-stop. I was very tired and I had had nothing to eat.
‘When I later asked Joey if anything had happened that night, he said “Yes”. I contacted my doctor and I was then referred to another doctor at the university hospital.
‘I didn’t immediately tell the Schumacher family what had happened. I couldn’t remember anything from the night, I had to ask one of the other staff at the house.
‘They said I was drunk and that Joey had carried me to my room, I woke up naked and when I first contacted Joey to ask him if anything had happened he said “No” but then later said “Yes”.’
Mawson explained in court that he had spent the night at the nurse’s apartment, claiming he stayed there until dawn because he ‘didn’t want the employees to know about the intimate moment we had together’.
He added: ‘I hadn’t realised how drunk I actually was. It wasn’t until the next morning that I realised how drunk I had been.
‘During the night, I had assumed she was less drunk than I realised the next morning.’
In his testimony Mawson insisted that the nurse had been ‘flirtatious’ and had instigated kissing and that they had ‘touched each other’s genitals’.
He added: ‘She was not intoxicated, she was alert and conscious, she was flirting and she managed to get her leg on the pool table.
‘You could see from her body language she was being flirtatious. I knocked on her room and she invited me in.’
The court heard allegations that a nurse who cared for Michael Schumacher woke up in pain on blood-stained bedsheets after being allegedly sexually assaulted by Mawson
The alleged attack took place in Schumacher’s mansion (pictured) in Gland, Switzerland
Mr Schumacher (pictured) suffered catastrophic brain injuries during a skiing accident in the French Alps in 2013, and hasn’t been seen in public since
Mawson said that two videos which were provided to the court but not shown – and timed at 10.15pm and midnight on the evening the offences are said to have happened – proved that the nurse was ‘being flirtatious’.
He told the court that when he heard of the allegations against him, he had texted the nurse and apologised saying: ‘I’m sorry for any emotional damage and physical pain I caused you.’
Prosecution read out text messages that Mawson had sent the nurse, which also said: ‘I’m so sorry from the bottom of my heart.’
When asked by trial judge Patricia Cornaz why he had done so, he replied: ‘Because I was overwhelmed by the accusations against me. It was the gentlemanly thing to do but I had done nothing wrong.’
In his closing argument, prosecutor Xavier Christe highlighted differences in Mawson’s testimony from earlier statements he had given to investigators.
He questioned how Mawson had such a vivid memory of some events despite admitting large amounts alcohol and in particular vodka and whisky had been drunk the night of the attack.
Christe also pointed out how Mawson said he couldn’t remember everything but had a clear recollection of helping the nurse back into bed after she had fallen out.
He also referred to discrepancies in Mawson’s testimony in which he initially said condoms had been used during consensual sex but then said no protection was used, with the nurse dabbing her eyes as he spoke.
Prosecutors closed the case by demanding a four-year jail sentence – the maximum is ten years – while Mawson’s legal team asked for him to be acquitted of all charges.
Speaking after the hearing Michod lashed out at Mawson’s defence tactics, accusing him of being ‘Machiavellian’, in terms of his use of cunning and deceit.
Michold told the Daily Mail: ‘He says that my client made all this up, he is saying that nothing happened, but why would she do something like that?
‘She was good at her job, she enjoyed her job and the Schumacher family acknowledged that, yet Mawson claims the next day she made all this up.
‘For me this is a really Machiavellian defence, it is evil and unjustified, he says this was all made up because she was fired from her job and it’s her way of getting revenge, its wrong.
‘The defence claim the whole thing was made up and try to justify it by saying my client was flirtatious and they say she wasn’t drunk despite them admitting a lot of alcohol was consumed.’
The judge adjourned the hearing until Friday when the verdict will be announced and outside court Mawson told the Daily Mail: ‘I will be here for that. I am not going back to Australia.’
His Sydney-based lawyer Veronica Abu Zeid told the Daily Mail: ‘My client has a retained Swiss lawyer and so until the verdict it would not be right to make any comment at this stage.’
The verdict is expected on Friday at 3pm local time.
