Former celebrity manager Ralph Carr has been sentenced to six years in prison after being convicted of raping and sexually assaulting a woman at his Melbourne home.
The 66-year-old, a longtime figure in Australia’s entertainment and sports industries, was sentenced in the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday (August 25th) after a jury last month found him guilty of two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault.
Carr will be eligible for parole after serving four years.
Judge Frank Gucciardo described Carr’s offending as “appalling” and “an egregious breach of trust” while delivering his sentence, per the Daily Telegraph. “You chose to abuse that trust in the most abhorrent manner,” Gucciardo told Carr.
The convictions relate to an incident at Carr’s West Melbourne home in March 2023 involving a woman who had previously worked at Ralph Carr Management. The pair had reconnected after the woman contacted Carr about activity she had noticed involving the company’s social media. Carr subsequently offered her work on a new project and the two met to discuss the opportunity.
The court heard they later spent the evening socialising, drinking alcohol and taking cocaine before the woman became upset while discussing her relationship.
According to evidence accepted by the jury, Carr initially comforted the woman before making sexual advances towards her. She repeatedly rejected him before Carr sexually assaulted and raped her. The attack ended after the woman punched Carr in the face and called him “a fucking rapist”. She later contacted her mother, who alerted police.
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Carr pleaded not guilty and has maintained his innocence.
His legal team had sought to have his sentence stayed while he appealed the convictions, with barrister Dermot Dann KC arguing last week that the verdict represented the “most obvious miscarriage of justice” he had encountered in 35 years as a trial barrister.
Gucciardo rejected the application on Tuesday, finding the circumstances did not justify delaying Carr’s sentence. “I have no such sense in this case,” the judge said of the defence’s argument that there was a real possibility a miscarriage of justice had occurred.
Carr’s lawyers have indicated they intend to appeal his convictions.
Carr spent decades working across the Australian entertainment industry, representing a number of prominent musicians and media personalities before expanding into sports management. His former clients have included his ex-wife Tina Arena, Kate Ceberano, Vanessa Amorosi, Richard Wilkins, Pseudo Echo and Deborah Conway.
Carr’s identity had been protected by a suppression order throughout the proceedings, with his lawyers previously arguing that identifying him publicly posed a risk to his mental health and safety. The order was lifted earlier this month after his legal team abandoned an attempt to extend it, allowing Carr to be named publicly for the first time following his conviction.