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Ralph Carr was once a high-profile sport and entertainment manager who counted Brownlow medallist Dustin Martin as a client and singer Tina Arena as a wife.
Over almost three decades in the Australian entertainment business, he’s rubbed shoulders with the likes of Gina Rinehart, Molly Meldrum, Priscilla Presley and the late Michael Gudinski, and managed Aussie acts including Kate Ceberano, Vanessa Amorosi and Pseudo Echo.
Now, he’s a convicted rapist.
As Carr’s identity was unmasked on Monday, his most high-profile client, former Richmond champion Martin said he has severed all ties with his former manager.
“I was shocked to learn of the outcome of the court proceedings. I had no knowledge whatsoever of the conduct that led to these convictions. My thoughts are with those affected,” Martin told this masthead.
“Effective immediately, I have ended my professional relationship with my former manager. As this is a legal matter, I will not be making any further comment.”
For three years, Carr has been fighting allegations that he raped a young woman at his home. But the music producer has done so under the cloak of anonymity, thanks to a wide-ranging suppression order that banned media from reporting his name, age, the industry he worked in, or publishing pixelated photographs.
However, after a jury convicted him on one count of sexual assault and two counts of rape last week, and a judge ordered the secrecy order be lifted on Monday afternoon after Carr abandoned his fight for it to continue, the 63-year-old can now be unmasked.
While he’s fought the charges, Carr – also known as Ralph Carnovale-Carr – has been free on bail to live and work in the community.
When she first encountered Carr, Lisa* knew him as a businessman with a big personality and a few red flags.
She felt he had good energy and hoped that by working as his personal assistant, he could help progress her career.
So when Carr sent an Uber to collect her and bring her to his lavish inner-city home in late 2022, she told the court she jumped at the opportunity.
The woman, then in her 20s, described the converted Rosslyn Street warehouse in West Melbourne as “larger than life”. As she moved around the property, she found it was complete with a sauna, extensive wine collection, a glass office and a grand piano.
Carr, 63, suggested she could help him work on his pending autobiography and film script.
The woman says the pair began listening to rock and metal music on the home’s three-seater crushed pink velvet couch, while consuming alcohol and cocaine.
That’s when she says the entertainment figure made his first a sexual pass at her.
“He felt like someone who was larger than life,” she later told police.
“I wanted to align myself with people who were leaders in their fields, I wanted to be taken seriously.
“I was not there to f— around. I was there to do my job and do it well.“
His company, Ralph Carr Management (RCM), calls itself one of the most successful and respected artist management companies in Australian history.
“I have dedicated my career to shaping the Australian entertainment industry,” he touts online.
The woman turned him down that night, but afterwards stayed in contact, occasionally staying over in a spare bedroom.
By early 2023, Carr was again promising he may have work for the victim.
The victim arrived at Carr’s home in sporting attire to discuss her potential employment, the role and his expectations.
The pair then selected a bottle of red wine from the cellar before moving to the loungeroom where the woman said cocaine was produced.
Carr then went and showered, the court heard, while the woman took photographs and looked at his visitor book.
She said when he arrived back downstairs he smelled of cologne.
The pair continued drinking and taking drugs before driving to another person’s home to watch the football together.
At 10.30pm, they arrived back at Carr’s home and sat on a green lounge, listening to music before moving to his bedroom.
The woman became upset over a broken relationship and Carr consoled her, but when he began to kiss her she pushed him away.
“He kept coming back. Putting his hands all over me. He didn’t care that I was crying,” she told police.
The victim was then raped.
The woman called her mother about what had happened, who immediately phoned police. The victim stayed at the address, but said she locked herself in another room.
Officers arrived at about 3.45am, finding Carr to be a “very charming and charismatic man” who spent most of the time police were there speaking about football.
Defence barrister Dermot Dann, KC, maintained his client was innocent and that a jury should find the victim was an unreliable witness who had a financial motive to lie, indicating to others that she intended to seek monetary compensation.
Dann compared her to a fiction writer and a powerful example that there were cases where people make false statements.
“What the prosecution has served up to you is a horrible mixture of lies, fabrications, recent inventions, inconsistencies, and evidence that had been proved to be demonstrably false,” Dann said.
The prosecution conceded there were inconsistencies in the victim’s testimony, but maintained she spoke truthfully about the night in question.
During the trial, Carr called in longtime friends in the legal and entertainment business to give character evidence on his behalf.
Barrister friend Marcus Clarke, KC, testified that he first met Carr when they were both on the Carlton Football Club board in about 2007. The defence witness said Carr was a decent and respectful man towards everyone.
“Very honest and very decent. He’s just … an honourable character,” Clarke said.
Adrian David Marchesani, a music and entertainment industry consultant, told the jury he’d known Carr for over 20 years and began working with him in 1998 when Carr owned an artist management company, record label and a publishing company in Lennox Street, Richmond.
Marchesani, who also worked as a Bachelor of Business manager in Victoria University’s music industry degree for almost a decade, swore that Carr was a committed worker who managed to turn his football interest into a career.
“He acts respectfully towards pretty much everyone. It’s a business where … you have to be on everyone’s side to proceed.”
Over two weeks of evidence, a jury of nine women and three men heard evidence from the victim, police and defence witnesses who spoke to Carr’s good character.
They took three days to reach their guilty verdicts. Carr was immediately taken into custody for sentence on a date to be fixed.
On Monday afternoon, Carr abandoned his years-long suppression fight minutes before a psychiatrist was expected to give evidence on his behalf.
His defence barrister then revealed he had been instructed to seek a stay of the sentence, a rare legal move, as Carr maintains he is innocent, and the jury got it wrong.
“He’ll be appealing against his conviction on the basis that a substantial miscarriage of justice has occurred, where no jury acting reasonably or rationally could have arrived at the guilty verdicts,” Dann said.
“We’re so deeply disturbed by the verdicts that we feel compelled to do so.
“We will also be relying on his mental health as part of that application.”
Matthew Fisher, for the prosecution, indicated they would likely oppose the application.
Carr is expected to face a pre-sentence hearing on August 17.
His case is one in a mounting pile of people who are using mental health as a ground for seeking a suppression order for safety.
Last month, this masthead revealed almost 500 suppression orders in various forms were issued in Victorian courts last year, with the highest number being issued on safety grounds – including for mental health reasons. Of those granted, 247 were made in the County Court.
As Carr’s case covertly made its way through the County Court, so too did that of Tom Silvagni – the son of a footballing great and television personality – whose rape case was also suppressed until he was found guilty late last year.
The proliferation of suppression orders in the justice system is being reviewed by the state government, with the Department of Justice and Community Safety to provide a report for Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny about use of suppression orders across all Victorian courts.
Carr’s social media is crowded with celebrity pictures. He’s attended Brownlow Medal counts, David Jones fashion launch parties and helped Martin sign an $8 million contract with Richmond in 2017.
Just last year he upset the AFL when he leaked early that Snoop Dogg was coming to Australia to perform at the grand final.
He now sits in a jail cell awaiting sentence.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service (1800RESPECT) on 1800 737 732.
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