Michael Schumacher’s family come under attack as sex assault trial hears the F1 ace’s nurse ‘was raped by his son’s friend then unjustly fired in double blow’

Michael Schumacher’s family were criticized today for firing the F1 nurse, months after she was allegedly raped in their villa.

At today’s hearing for the alleged attacker, his lawyer said he was ‘suffered a double whammy’ when the Schumachers kicked him out a year after he claimed he was sexually assaulted.

Australian race car driver Joey Mawson appeared in court today in Nyon, Switzerland, over the 2019 incident.

Mawson is said to have raped the nurse twice on November 23, 2019, in the 57-year-old German star’s bedroom at his mansion in Gland, near Geneva.

The nurse’s lawyer, Patrick Michod, said the nurse had worked for the Schumacher family for six years and belonged to their “inner circle of trust”. Michod said it was a ‘double blow’ to be sacked from a job he was ‘proud of’ after the alleged attack.

“In all these years there has been not even the slightest accusation against him,” he told the court at today’s hearing.

‘During his time there, he was dealing with the consequences of a tragic accident every day, but in addition to his professional work, his other goal was to protect his family.

‘She said nothing about what was going on at the residence and only wanted to protect the Schumacher family but she was subjected to a truly unfair sexual assault.’

A text message read to the court by Mawson’s lawyer revealed the nurse feared for her job if news of the alleged assault became known and cited her friendship with Michael Schumacher’s son as a cause for concern.

Luc Vaney, representing Mawson, read the victim’s text to his client: ‘You are his son’s best friend. ‘I don’t want to lose my job.’

Mawson is a close friend of Schumacher’s son Mick Schumacher, 26 (pictured in 2016)

During Tuesday’s hearing, the court heard Mawson spent the evening with several of Schumacher’s employees, during which the nurse consumed a significant amount of alcohol.

According to the indictment, the young man, who was unable to stand because he was drunk, fell to the ground and was taken to his room by the officers, fully clothed. Prosecutors allege the rape later took place in that room.

The nurse only complained about the incident two years after the alleged assault, when she was fired from her job.

The court heard the nurse woke up naked and allegedly unable to remember what happened after the 2019 incident.

She later noticed blood on her sheets and felt pain in her vaginal and anal areas.

The nurse was later asked to recall what happened to her and, breaking down in tears, she told the court: ‘I had been working for the family for six years and I had been working for six days straight that night. I was very tired and had nothing to eat.

Later, when I asked Joey if anything happened that night, he said, “Yes.” I contacted my doctor and was referred to another doctor at the university hospital.

“I didn’t immediately tell the Schumacher family what happened. I couldn’t remember anything from the night, so I had to ask one of the other staff at the house.

‘They said I was drunk and Joey carried me to my room. I woke up naked and when I first contacted Joey to ask if something was wrong he said ‘No’ but later he said ‘Yes’.’

Mawson told the court he spent the night in the nurse’s flat and stayed there until the morning because he ‘didn’t want the staff to know about our special moment together’.

He added: ‘I didn’t realize how drunk I actually was. It wasn’t until the next morning that I realized how drunk I was.

‘I had assumed throughout the night that he was less drunk than I realized the next morning.’

In his statement, Mawson emphasized that the nurse acted “flirtatiously”, instigated kissing and “they touched each other’s genitals”.

He added: ‘He wasn’t drunk, he was alert and conscious, he was flirting and he managed to get his leg on the pool table.

‘It was clear from his body language that he was flirtatious. ‘I knocked on his room door and he invited me in.’

The court heard claims that a nurse caring for Michael Schumacher woke up in pain on bloody sheets after she was allegedly sexually assaulted by Mawson.

The alleged attack took place at Schumacher’s mansion in Gland, Switzerland (pictured).

Mr Schumacher (pictured) suffered catastrophic brain injuries during a skiing accident in the French Alps in 2013 and has not been seen in public since.

Mawson said two videos, which were presented to the court but not shown, at 10.15pm and at midnight when the crimes were said to have been committed, proved that the nurse was a ‘womaniser’.

He told the court that when he heard the allegations against him, he texted the nurse to apologize and said: ‘I’m sorry for the emotional harm and physical pain I caused you.’

The prosecution read Mawson’s text messages to the nurse, which said: ‘I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart.’

When asked by the trial judge Patricia Cornaz why she did this, she replied: ‘Because I was stunned by the accusations against me. It was a gentlemanly thing to do, but I hadn’t done anything wrong.’

In his closing statement, prosecutor Xavier Christe highlighted the differences between Mawson’s testimony and previous statements he gave to investigators.

He questioned how Mawson had such a vivid memory of some of the events, despite admitting to drinking large amounts of alcohol, particularly vodka and whiskey, on the night of the attack.

Christe also pointed out that Mawson said he couldn’t remember everything but clearly remembered the nurse helping him back into bed after he fell.

He also cited inconsistencies in Mawson’s evidence, in which he initially said a condom was used during consensual sex but later said no protection was used and that the nurse wiped her eyes as she spoke.

Prosecutors closed the case by asking for a four-year prison sentence, with a maximum of ten years, while Mawson’s legal team wanted him to be acquitted of all charges.

Speaking after the hearing, Michod slammed Mawson’s defensive tactics, accusing him of being ‘Machiavellian’ in his use of cunning and deceit.

Michold told the Daily Mail: ‘He says my client is making this all up, he says nothing happened but why would he do something like that?

‘He was good at his job, he enjoyed his job and the Schumacher family accepted this, but Mawson claimed the next day that he had made it all up.

‘For me this is a truly Machiavellian defense, evil and unfair. He says this is all made up because he got fired from his job and this is his way of taking revenge, it’s wrong.

‘The defense claims that this is all fabrication and tries to justify this by saying that my client was not drunk, although they accept that he was a womanizer and consumed a lot of alcohol.’

The judge adjourned the hearing until Friday, when the verdict will be announced, and outside court Mawson told the Daily Mail: ‘I’ll be here for this. ‘I’m not going back to Australia.’

His lawyer in Sydney, Veronica Abu Zeid, told the Daily Mail: ‘My client has a Swiss lawyer and therefore it would not be appropriate to make any comments at this stage until the verdict is out.’

The decision is expected to be announced on Friday at 15:00 local time.