Mohammed Alabbasi, 20, claimed his brother had committed the alleged attack on the woman after he borrowed his phone to arrange a meeting with a sex worker earlier this week.

Alabbasi did not enter pleas to two charges of sexual intercourse without consent, third degree sexual assault, unlawful confinement,and attempted aggravated robbery using force when he fronted the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday.

Court documents said the female sex worker was working from an apartment in Braddon when she received a phone call from a man, who identified himself as "Ali", requesting a half an hour service on Tuesday.

The pair met in the apartment block's foyer before they went back to the woman's room, where she briefly asked him about payment before he abruptly said he needed to wash his hands.

When he emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, the woman told him the appointment would cost $350 and he started searching through his pockets.

She then noticed he did not have his wallet on him.

The man then allegedly pulled a box cutter from his pocket and waved the blade in the woman's face as he repeatedly demanded cash and said: "Just give me the money and I'll go."

The woman managed to escape and run to the apartment door before the man allegedly slammed the door shut, blocked it and pushed the woman into a wall.

As he held her there, he continued to wave the box cutter in her face, demanding money before he said: "Well let's just have sex then."

Court documents said the man then raped her, and the woman later told police she was hyperventilating and felt dizzy and nauseous.

She pretended to faint so the man would leave, but he told her to "keep going", court documents said.

He sexually assulted her twice more before he left the apartment.

The woman immediately phoned a friend, who reported the incident to police.

She provided police with a description of the alleged offender and later underwent a medical examination.

Police searched Alabbasi's home on Wednesday and seized a mobile phone that matched the number in the woman's phone.

In an interview with police, Alabbasi admitted the phone was his, but said his brother had borrowed it on Tuesday to look for a prostitute using the website Cracker.

He said his brother had exchanged texts with a woman and the defendant had waited in the car while his brother went to meet her at a Braddon apartment.

Alabbasi was arrested on Wednesday and his Legal Aid duty lawyer applied for bail.

The court heard he was a recent immigrant and on a bridging visa. He had family ties in the ACT, where he had lived for a couple of years.

Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker said she was not concerned that the defendant would fail to appear in court if bail was granted.

But she was concerned about the serious nature of the alleged offences and the strength of the evidence before the court.

She acknowledged Alabbasi's claims that his brother was the offender, but his phone linked him to the incident.

Ms Walker denied bail.

The case returns to court later this month.