A court has heard allegations that a nurse who cared for Michael Schumacher woke up in pain on blood-stained bedsheets after being allegedly sexually assaulted by racing driver Joey Mawson.
Australian race car driver 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 56-year-old German star’s mansion in Gland, near Geneva, on November 23, 2019.
The accused vehemently denies the allegations, and previously stated that the sex was consensual.
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.
When the nurse woke up she was naked, and allegedly could not remember what had happened.
Mawson (pictured) is said to have raped the nurse twice in a bedroom at the 56-year-old German star’s mansion in Gland, near Geneva, on November 23, 2019
The alleged attack took place in Schumacher’s mansion (pictured) in Gland, Switzerland
She then noticed blood on her bedsheets and felt pain in her vaginal and anal areas.
The nurse told the court that she asked a fellow employee what had happened, and he confirmed she had been carried up to her room and they had sent Mawson to check on her.
The employee seemed to think nothing had occurred, but when she asked Mawson, he allegedly confirmed something had happened.
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 realized how drunk I actually was. It wasn’t until the next morning that I realized how drunk I had been.
‘During the night, I had assumed she was less drunk than I realized the next morning.’
Prosecution read out text messages that Mawson had sent the nurse, where he appeared to apologise to her.
‘I’m so sorry from the bottom of my heart,’ one of the texts read, while another said: ‘I’m so sorry for the pain I’m causing you.’
The trial was initially opened in October 2025, but Mawson failed to show up.
In his absence, the rape trial was formally opened, but then adjourned to ‘a date to be fixed’.
Mawson is a close friend of Schumacher’s son, Mick Schumacher, 26, and also a driver.
He frequently stayed with the Schumacher family between races to avoid long return flights to Australia.
The complainant was part of a medical team providing assistance to Schumacher, the seven-time F1 champion, who has not been seen in public since a 2013 ski accident.
Michael Schumacher (pictured) suffered catastrophic brain injuries during the skiing accident in the French Alps in 2013, and hasn’t been seen in public since
The Schumacher family are otherwise uninvolved in the case, and were not listed as witnesses in the case at the Nyon District Court.
The accused has admitted a ‘consensual relationship’ with the woman, who is in her 30s, and he says he has the phone messages to prove it.
He also says the woman only complained about him two years after the alleged attack, after the Schumacher family had fired her from her job.
No complaint was received from the alleged victim until January 2022, and the defendant cooperated during the initial stages of the investigation.
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.
‘In all those years, there was never even the slightest accusation against her,’ he told the court during today’s trial.
Michod spoke of a ‘brutal dismissal’ in 2020 and questioned the official reason for termination.
He said the nurse experienced this dismissal ‘like a second act of violence.’
The trial today is scheduled to finish at 6pm local time.
