The four-second CCTV video of Katie Arthur appears unremarkable.
The 30-year-old Melbourne woman is standing in front of an elevator wearing a black hat, a long black coat, blue jeans and white sneakers.
She is clutching her handbag when she presses the call button on the lift.
At her feet are two large flatpack boxes for recycling from the three single beds she just assembled inside an apartment she leases to international students at a CBD tower.
It is only when you know where she is coming from and what allegedly took place that the fuller picture emerges.
Ms Arthur has been drugged, raped and photographed in a compromised state, she claims, and is struggling to collect her thoughts.
The rest of the boxes are still inside the apartment. The fact that she collected any is a window into her confused state.
“F**k you, you can get the rest,” she told the man before fleeing.
Her alleged attacker is not far behind her when she reaches the lobby and bumps into another tenant. He catches up to her while she is talking to the other individual.
“He looked at me and said, ‘Hi Kate’, like really smug. I was just fuming,” Ms Arthur says.
The alleged attack, which took place earlier this year, was the beginning of a nightmare for the Melbourne accommodation provider that has seen her alleged attacker flee the country and left her with limited prospects of achieving justice.
Ms Arthur, who gave news.com.au written permission to be identified, said the man who raped her is a “monster” and that his attack was calculated and extremely cruel.
But what happened next made things so much worse.
The WhatsApp messages and the wine
News.com.au has viewed the WhatsApp messages from the man Ms Arthur says drugged and raped her that afternoon inside the short-term accommodation.
For legal reasons — and because charges were never laid — he cannot be named, but news.com.au can reveal he was a Mexican student studying at the University of Melbourne and was living with several other Mexican temporary citizens at the time.
The man first made contact with Ms Arthur in the first half of this year when she received a text message inquiring about an apartment for rent in Melbourne.
“I knew it was a Mexican phone number because I’d had Mexican tenants before,” Ms Arthur said.
The man wanted to know whether he and five others could rent an apartment from Ms Arthur in the CBD. Lease documents were signed and the group arrived several weeks later when Ms Arthur gave them a tour of the complex.
Four days after, Ms Arthur dropped off several chairs at the apartment at the tenants’ request. The group was having a gathering and she knew several of the tenants. She stayed for an hour and had two drinks.
Over several days, the man and Ms Arthur texted back and forth about a time for her to assemble three single beds inside the apartment.
“When I’m I (sic) going to see you?” the man wrote.
“I can come and do the beds whenever you like,” Ms Arthur responded.
“Tomorrow. Like 2pm,” the man wrote.
The following day, Ms Arthur asked if he was “still good for 2?” and told him she was “10 or so mins away”.
He replied, saying the group was “really hungry” and would be getting some food. He invited her, but she told him to “head out and just leave the door open”.
“I’ll do the beds then come join,” she said.
Ms Arthur has documented what happened next in a formal statement to Victoria Police. She said the man returned to the apartment without the other tenants and offered her a drink before opening a bottle of red wine.
She reluctantly took a few sips before returning to assemble the flatpack furniture. Ms Arthur says the man began asking personal questions, including whether she had “used Tinder before”.
“He made a comment saying, ‘No one is my type, you are my type, I want to marry you’,” Ms Arthur says.
“I just laughed it off.”
Around 5pm that afternoon, having finished assembling the three beds, Ms Arthur claims the man followed her to the master bedroom where she had the bedding and linen, told her “you have not drank much” and soon after “leaned in to kiss me on my mouth”.
“I remember pulling away my face and making a joke about it,” she said.
“I cannot remember exactly what I said, but I think it may have been, ‘in your dreams’.”
She says she only remembers “snippets” after that and believes she was drugged and raped.
She recalls him “trying to pick her up” but struggling because she was taller than him, and she remembers him putting on a condom and raping her.
Her next memory is of him “standing over me”, she told news.com.au.
“He’s standing over me on the other side of the bed. I believe he was taking a photo. I said, ‘Do you think I’m an idiot?’ I was getting my clothes on, he was still doing it. I sat at the table for one minute and texted my boyfriend. I said, ‘(I’m) not OK’.”
‘I raised the risk of him fleeing the country’
Ms Arthur went to police to make a formal statement. In emails seen by news.com.au, she was told by a senior constable at the Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) that he could not take her statement for eight days due to a lack of available officers.
“I will need to obtain a formal statement from you and conduct further investigation before making any arrests,” she was told.
“I do not have grounds to seize his passport at this stage without further evidence which includes your statement amongst other things.
“I am tied up (for the next eight days). I have asked around the office and consulted my supervisor and there is no one else available to do a statement any earlier.”
She was told a team of five was juggling 108 active cases.
News.com.au understands Ms Arthur flagged with police that she was worried her attacker would flee the country. A few days after the email from police, he did just that.
Ms Arthur learned almost two weeks after that the man had returned to Mexico. She has since raised concerns about the handling of her allegations and questioned why police did not request to put the man’s name on an airport watch list.
A review of the management of the case was finalised by the Police Complaints Unit with no findings of misconduct, but “a number of learnings were identified”, Ms Arthur was told via email.
She has not been told what those learnings were and news.com.au has approached Victoria Police for comment.
A police spokesperson said Victoria Police has been in “constant contact with the victim and the investigation is very much active and ongoing”.
They said the delay in scheduling a time for SOCIT detectives to take her statement was “so there was sufficient time to take a detailed, thorough report”.
“No alert was issued for restrictions on international travel because police did not have evidence to meet the legal threshold required to prevent the person leaving the country,” the spokesperson said.
“Melbourne SOCIT is progressing the matter as quickly as possible, noting it’s complex and we must ensure investigations are thorough. Victoria Police has referred the woman to the relevant support services.”
Mexican politician apologises for ‘terrible experience’
Mauricio Kuri González is a Mexican politician and the current Governor of Santiago de Querétaro, a city in central Mexico.
In a message to Ms Arthur, seen by news.com.au, he expressed his regret and urged her to contact the Mexican Consulate in Australia.
“First of all, I am deeply sorry to hear about the terrible experience you went through,” Mr González wrote.
“No one should ever have to go through a situation like that. Because this incident occurred outside of Mexico, my administration does not have the legal jurisdiction or authority to intervene in investigations, legal processes or acts committed in another country.
“I strongly encourage you to contact the Embassy or Consulate of Mexico in Australia or reach out to local Australian authorities as they are the competent entities equipped to handle international legal co-operation, tracking and assistance for victims of crime.”
Ms Arthur said the last conversation she had with her alleged rapist was very brief. It took place in the days before he fled the country.
“He said to me, ‘Sorry the rent is late’. I said, ‘How sorry are you?’”
The Victoria Police spokesperson said SOCIT detectives “are highly trained and dedicated to getting justice for victims” and “the safety of victims is at the forefront for police and we work to make sure they are updated throughout any investigation”.
“We take any allegations against the conduct of our members seriously and have strict procedures and policies in place,” the spokesperson said.
“Just because a matter is unsolved doesn’t mean it’s not being investigated and a case is never closed until we get answers for victims.”
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