By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
A 34-year-old man was convicted of attempted rape and forcibly detaining a high school teacher after she testified that she lost consciousness following a visit to a bar and woke in a motel room with him in December 2023.
A nine-member jury unanimously found Tamal Curry guilty of attempting to rape the 29-year-old woman at Smith's Motel on East Street on December 20, 2023.
Jurors also returned an 8-1 guilty verdict on a charge of forcible taking or detention with intent to have unlawful sexual intercourse following nearly two hours of deliberations.
Curry, who wore a black face mask, remained silent as Justice Loren Klein announced the verdicts.
His sentencing hearing was set for January 21, 2027.
During the trial, the complainant, a high school mathematics teacher, testified that she visited Shot O'Clock bar off Prince Charles Drive with a colleague around 4pm to celebrate the end of the school term.
She said she drank two Kalik Gold beers and three shots but maintained that she was not intoxicated, having consumed those drinks on previous occasions without becoming incapacitated.
The woman said the bar was largely empty until Curry arrived with another man. She recognised him from an earlier business transaction in which she had bought a car bumper from him.
She said she greeted Curry, who sat about two feet away. She also testified that she and her colleague made several trips to the bathroom, leaving their drinks unattended while Curry and his companion remained nearby.
Her last memory at the bar was preparing to leave. She next recalled waking around 8pm in an unfamiliar motel room, where her trousers had been removed, and Curry was beside her with his genitals exposed.
The complainant said she had not consented to being taken to the motel.
She testified that Curry initially claimed she had asked to go there, which she found strange because they would have passed her Sandilands Village apartment along the way. She said he later changed his account and told her he had brought her there.
The woman said Curry asked to have sex with her, but she refused. She testified that he then tried to force himself on her and that she fought him off for about 20 minutes.
She said Curry eventually went into the bathroom, allowing her to attempt to escape.
The complainant testified that she reached her car, but Curry followed her and got inside. She warned him that the vehicle was fitted with a tracking device.
She said Curry then asked, “you want your car?”
The woman alleged that Curry slammed her head into the door area of the vehicle, injuring her forehead. She presented the court with a photograph of the injury taken on her iPhone.
She said she fled and sought help from a nearby family, but they declined to intervene. Her legs felt weak and she fell while running, tearing her clothes, before eventually reaching a nearby bar where patrons assisted her.
While at hospital, the complainant said she checked a GPS tracking application and discovered that her vehicle had passed her home and travelled through unfamiliar areas for about an hour before arriving at the motel.
She said Curry had told her he drove her car to prevent her from driving and that she could not leave the motel room because he had already paid for it.
The woman testified that she believed she had been drugged because of the weakness in her legs and her inability to remember anything between preparing to leave the bar and waking at the motel.
However, no evidence was presented to establish that her drink had been tampered with.
Curry denied the allegations and claimed he drove the woman to the motel after she nearly had an accident while attempting to leave the bar.
He maintained that she was unfit to drive and that he paid $100 for a motel room so she could “catch herself”.
Curry claimed he left the woman in the room while he went outside to smoke. When he returned, he said he found her naked and lay beside her.
He denied touching her but acknowledged removing his underwear while in bed.
Curry claimed that when the woman regained her senses, her behaviour changed completely and she dressed, fled the room and drove away.
He also alleged that a group of armed men subsequently came looking for him, forcing him to hide with the assistance of a motel employee before escaping over a fence.
He denied putting anything in the complainant's drink.
An alternative charge of indecent assault was available for the jury's consideration had Curry been acquitted of the principal charges.
Stanley Rolle represented Curry, while Basil Cumberbatch and Danielle Capron prosecuted the case.
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