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An award-winning real estate agent is fighting dozens of sexual offence charges against three women, including rapes and sexual touching while he was a senior sales executive at Ray White.
Omar Lababidi, 29, is accused of sexually attacking three women between 2021 and 2023 at various western Sydney open homes and other spots.
Real estate agent Omar Lababidi has been accused of sexually attacking three women.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
The accusations were outlined during Crown prosecutor Alex Brown’s opening address as Lababidi’s trial began on Tuesday at Campbelltown District Court, after he pleaded not guilty to 26 sexual offences.
“It is the Crown’s case that the accused, at different times, while working at Ray White real estate, sexually touched each of these women, and that, on different occasions, carried out sexual acts towards one of the women and had sexual intercourse with her … all without their consent and knowing they weren’t consenting,” Brown said.
The allegations include forcing the women to give him oral sex, exposing his penis while masturbating inside open homes, and putting his hands inside their underwear. On some occasions, the jury was told, the women were only saved when customers entered the home viewings.
The first unwanted attempted kiss against the first complainant allegedly happened in mid-2021, inside Lababidi’s car as it stopped at traffic lights. He’s accused of grabbing the woman’s neck, pulling her towards him and trying to kiss her. Despite the complainant saying “no” and trying to look away from Lababidi, Brown submitted, he continued and “kept telling her she looked pretty”.
Another alleged attack happened inside an open home, when Lababidi allegedly “pulled her onto his lap and kissed her”.
“[The woman], again, told the accused she didn’t want to do this, and told him they should keep things professional before she walked out of the house.”
The third alleged incident happened inside another home, when Lababidi allegedly pushed the woman up against a bench and started kissing her, causing her to freeze. He then allegedly put her on top of the bench, spread her legs and rubbed his hands on the outside of her crotch, forcing her to do the same.
On two more occasions, the real estate agent allegedly forced another kiss on the woman and put his hand up her skirt, touching her bottom.
Lababidi arrives at Campbelltown District Court.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Brown told the jury they will hear evidence that Lababidi sexually touched a second woman without her consent twice, first in November 2022 during an open home.
“At one point, the accused shut the door while they were in the hallway and pinned her to the wall and tried to kiss her,” Brown said they will hear.
“[The alleged victim] tried to push the accused away, but he started kissing her neck, telling her to give him just one kiss and that no one will ever know … [he] kept trying to kiss her face, while she kept pushing him, moving her face away and saying ‘stop’.”
One month later, at another open home, Lababidi allegedly pinned the woman against a wall, put a hand up her dress and under her underwear and touched her buttocks. After repeated requests to stop, the woman allegedly finally yelled, “What the f--- are you doing?”, and Lababidi finally stopped and apologised.
Seventeen of the 26 counts relate to the third complainant – who was aged 17 when they met – and include several alleged incidents in 2022 where Lababidi allegedly forced her to squeeze his erect penis, saying “you love this”, grabbed her buttocks and breasts and kissed her as she tried to push him off.
The jury was told that during one open home viewing in March 2023, while no other customers were inside, Lababidi sat in the front room and masturbated. He then got up off the lounge, walked towards the woman, grabbed her hand and forced her to touch his penis, the Crown alleged, adding she was only able to escape once a couple arrived at the house.
It is the Crown’s case that on more than one occasion, he forced her to give him oral sex.
In his opening address, defence barrister Simon Buchen, SC, argued all three women consented to intimacy with Lababidi.
“It is the defence case that there was mutual flirting. The complainants exercised a degree of choice with the accused,” Buchen told the jury.
“The accused did not force himself upon the complainants within locations open to the public. He may, on occasion, have made advances to those women, but at the time, the complainants willingly participated in intimacy with the accused.”
In 2023, Lababidi won several awards for his performance in the Macarthur area in south-west Sydney and was named Sydney’s fifth-highest-performing agent.
The trial before Judge Ross Hudson is expected to last three weeks.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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