The boss of a Sydney construction firm has been ordered to pay his secretary tens of thousands of dollars after he threatened her employment to ‘extort’ her into sex when she rejected him.
Axe Construction director Richard Aubertin sexually harassed his office administrator Sonata Trakimaite from October 2020 through to December that year, the Federal Court ruled on November 8.
Aubertin and Ms Trakimaite first met in a Sydney bar in April 2016 before he offered her casual work at his business based in Double Bay in August 2020.
Ms Trakimaite claimed to her friend, Anais de Caires, she felt ‘forced’ to have sex with her boss on October 31, 2020 because if she did not she would lose her job, court documents, reported by The Australian, reveal.
The pair then entered into a sexual relationship in the weeks that followed.
By December 24 she was pregnant with his child and Aubertin was calling her ‘crazy’ while trying to convince her to abort the baby after she refused to do so.
Aubertin let her know that she no longer had a job and demanded she return the office keys on December 30
‘Your now on your own I want nothing to do with this bulls*** good keep out of my life f*** off,’ Aubertin texted at the time, the court heard.
Axe Construction director Richard Aubertin was ordered to pay $25,000 to his former employee Sonata Trakimaite after he ‘extorted’ her for sex
Judge Robert Cameron found that Aubertin’s business was vicariously liable for his actions and that Ms Trakimaite’s ’employment appears to have ended as an implicit consequence of the end of the personal relationship’.
Aubertin is the sole director of Axe Construction and his duties included running the operations of the business and employing and managing staff.
Judge Cameron said Aubertin had taken advantage of Ms Trakimaite’s ‘vulnerable’ circumstances as she considered her employment to be unstable and as she was working multiple jobs at the time.
According to her friend Ms de Caires’ deposition, Ms Trakimaite said, ‘Richard … forced me to have sex with him.
‘He told me that if I didn’t have sex with him that I didn’t have a job anymore.’
Ms Trakimaite and Ms de Caire had known each other for three years and worked together at The Men’s Gallery which is a gentleman’s club in the city.
Ms Trakimaite also said she had been promised ‘a career and a pay rise’ by Aubertin when she started working for him which she thought would be lost if the sex stopped.
The judge ruled that Ms Trakimaite was a victim of sexual harassment and that she did not have sex with Aubertin ‘because she wanted to, but because she felt she had to’.
Ms Trakimaite met Aubertin in a Sydney bar in 2016 before starting to work for him in 2020 at his business where they soon after began a sexual relationship
When Ms Trakimaite and Aubertin first met they exchanged contact details and stayed loosely in touch until she began working for him.
Aubertin first sent Ms Trakimaite a text asking if he could ‘come over for cuddles’ which she rejected giving the excuse she was ‘a bit dead’ after a gym workout.
‘Your going to regret saying no to me tomorrow ha,’ Aubertin texted.
‘You will punish me,’ Ms Trakimaite replied.
The court heard that this kind of ‘playful banter’ was common in the beginning of their relationship until Ms Trakimaite said she felt pressured into sex on October 31.
Ms Trakimaite was driving home from a study course when Aubertin asked if she was free, asking if she would ‘like a little French in you tonight’.
After rejecting that advance in favour of getting some rest before her waitress shift later that night Aubertin said ‘there are plenty of b****** in Sydney babe’.
‘Are you angry on me that I’m not coming. I need to rest before work,’ Ms Trakimaite replied.
‘I’m telling you never disrespect me never good night,’ Aubertin texted back.
Ms Trakimaite told a co-worker that she was ‘forced’ to have sex with her boss and that she feared losing her job during a conversation the pair had on October 31, 2020
Ms Trakimaite asked Aubertin if he was upset and called him immediately after receiving the text, the court heard.
In that call Aubertin told her that she was ‘finished’ and hung up.
Judge Cameron said in his judgement that this was a crucial moment for Ms Trakimaite in understanding that her job was on the line if she did not have sex with her boss.
‘Ms Trakimaite’s evidence was that, given their conversation and Mr Aubertin hanging up on her, she believed that if she did not do what Mr Aubertin wanted he would dismiss her,’ the judgment read.
‘She said in cross-examination that it was clear to her that Mr Aubertin had not been speaking about their personal relationship but about her employment. She considered that it was a threat that if she did not go to Mr Aubertin’s house she would lose her job.
‘She said that this exchange was qualitatively different from text messages bantering about sex that they had exchanged a month earlier.’
Ms Trakimaite did end up going over to Aubertin’s home after the phone call so as to not leave him upset.
Despite her telling him that she was not ‘comfortable’ with the situation and even after she continued pleading with Aubertin to stop he continued undressing her, court documents state.
‘As he was lifting my top off I felt scared because I had said no many times to him but he just kept going,’ she told the court.
Following on from that incident Ms Trakimaite said she continued the sexual relationship as she was ‘afraid’ that any changes to it would cost her her job.
The pair had sex again on November 19, this time unprotected, and roughly a month later pregnancy tests showed that Ms Trakimaite was pregnant with his child.
Heated arguments ensued when Ms Trakimaite informed Aubertin about the situation and told him that she did not want to get an abortion.
At first Aubertin was supportive of the idea and even suggested she move in with him so the two could get married and start building ‘a life together’ until Ms Trakimaite learned that he was dating one of her close friends at the time which caused her to become angry.
‘Sonata don’t ever talk to me like that your on your own I want you to abort this baby your crazy,’ he texted days after finding out about the pregnancy.
Throughout the rest of December and into the New Year Ms Trakimaite claimed Aubertin ended her employment, showed up at her house demanding she return the office keys, asked for proof of pregnancy and eventually offered her money for the abortion.
Aubertin wholly denied the accusations against him and insisted their relationship had been ‘consensual and voluntary’ for its entirety.
The court heard that because of all the drama Aubertin had been ‘constantly in a state of confusion and worry due to Ms Trakimaite’s difficult behaviour’.
Ms Trakimaite and Aubertin had unprotected sex on November 19, 2020, and she became pregnant a month later. At first Aubertin was supportive of keeping the child before he eventually demand she get an abortion, told her she was on her own and called her ‘crazy’ on December 30
Aubertin told the court that he and Ms Trakimaite faced some language and cultural barriers because of her Lithuanian background as English was her second language.
He said that any misunderstandings about the terms of their relationship was caused by a confusion stemming from their cultural or language differences.
Concerning the text he sent on October 31, which to Ms Trakimaite fundamentally changed the way she looked at their relationship, Aubertin said he was intoxicated.
‘Ms Trakimaite was playing hard to get which made me question whether she was really interested in me at all or just wasting my time,’ he said.
In their text exchange Ms Trakimaite had initially declined to go over to Aubertin’s house but proposed the pair go out to dinner at 6.30pm instead.
‘I want to you cum over to my place and I f*** you like crazy tonight I miss all of you now baby girl I’m so wanting you,’ Aubertin replied.
Aubertin insisted on this occasion that Ms Trakimaite’s employment was not in jeopardy and that he wanted to discuss his concerns about working together and having a sexual relationship.
Judge Cameron ruled that he did not believe that Ms Trakimaite lost her job because of the pregnancy but indeed as a result of the termination of the pair’s sexual relationship.
Ms Trakimaite was awarded $25,000 in damages for Aubertin’s ‘ugly and selfish’ behaviour, the judge told the court.
Aubertin told the Australian that he found the ruling to be ‘disgraceful’.
