An ANU student who messaged a close friend "I really didn't get consent" after spending a night together says it was not a confession about any wrongdoing, a court has heard.
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Chavin Seneviratne, 24, is on trial in the ACT Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to a principal charge of engaging in sexual intercourse without consent and an alternative count of committing an act of indecency without consent.
The ACT Supreme Court previously heard that Mr Seneviratne and the complainant engaged in consensual sexual activity in mid 2017 when she went to him for comfort after she was sexually assaulted by someone else.
Then in January last year, the defendant sent her Facebook messages that included him allegedly confessing to digitally penetrating her without her consent.
On Thursday, the court heard those messages included the defendant saying he stuck "a thumb in yr ass", "I didn't really get consent" and that he needed to clear his conscience.
During cross examination by the prosecution, Mr Seneviratne said the messages related to consensual sexual activity.
He said he did not ask her for consent but that he knew "I had consent when I did it".
"It wasn't meant to be some kind of confession," he said.
"It [message] was light-hearted and we didn't exactly talk about it."
He also said messages showing him apologising to her were related to having consensual sex.
"I'm sorry for not being a better friend," one of his messages read.
"I was the one who initiated the sex in the first place ... considering what she had been through with the previous incident when she came over, I shouldn't have made that initiation," Mr Seneviratne said in court.
The court heard the pair did not contact each other for more than one week following the messages.
The court heard the pair had exchanged messages almost daily, including about 1700 in December 2019, about various things, including personal problems, before their friendship broke down.
Crown prosecutor Keegan Lee continuously asked the defendant whether the relationship ended after the January messages because "you stuck your thumb up her arse without consent".
Mr Seneviratne denied the assertion multiple times and said he had stopped talking to her because she kept hounding him and became toxic as she was going through a relationship breakup.
"She made a lot of things weigh on my mind, I didn't like it," he said.
"There was no sense that she had any kind of problem with that [message about consent] because she said we had let that shit go.
"I mean she asked some strange questions like 'did you drug me?' and I just took them lightly because obviously I didn't ... I thought she was joking around."
The prosecutor suggested to the defendant that his evidence to police was inconsistent with his evidence in court as he told the former he was probably meant to type "I did get consent".
Earlier in the hearing, Mr Seneviratne said when he learnt about the allegations against him, the situation "hit me like a truck".
The court heard that the complainant slept on his bed during the night in question and he was up most of the night completing an assignment.
He was also questioned about the events that transpired during the night.
During questioning by his defence lawyer, Ken Archer, Mr Seneviratne said some of his other Facebook messages showed he was "in a really bad place" and he was trying to support his friend with personal issues.
Closing statements and jury deliberations are expected on Friday.
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