A woman who worked for former federal MP Craig Kelly's chief of staff as a teenager said she felt scared for her safety months before he indecently assaulted her.
As a hearing for Francesco "Frank" Zumbo resumed in the Downing Centre Local Court on Monday, the young former employee said she was encouraged by another alleged victim to secretly record conversations with her boss.
"I was quite scared that something would happen and I wanted to have some proof," she said via video link.
Zumbo would often hug his female staff, who he referred to as "sisters," and would kiss them on the cheek when greeting them and saying goodbye, the court heard.
"I didn't like it but I wasn't sure if that was normal professional practice to do that. Nobody had greeted me like that in school and at church," the woman told the court.
Starting in 2016, he is alleged to have called the then teenager into Kelly's office to kiss her and caress her breast before giving her a lift back to her parents' home.
"I didn't like it and I felt really weird about it," the alleged victim told the court.
Although she complained about this and the greeting kisses to her boss, the woman says her concerns were ignored.
"This is how I show love and this is how I show affection, and if you get a boyfriend you've got to be prepared for these sorts of interactions," Zumbo is alleged to have said.
As well as touching her breasts, the woman alleges that Zumbo also touched her vagina and kissed her on the lips some time between January 2017 and December 2018. He has denied the claims.
The alleged victim, who cannot be legally named, told the court she met the now 55-year-old for the first time when she was a high school student and went to work in Mr Kelly's Sutherland office after graduating.
In a 50-minute recorded chat played to the court, the former aide said he moulded and mentored the young Christian because he was fulfilling the "Lord's mission".
"I'm pushing you to perfection. I'm pushing you to serve the Lord. Maybe it's not my role to push you to serve the Lord but I've taken on that role," he told the then-teenager.
"I admire you. I adore you. You're everything I'm looking for in a woman. Intelligent, good looking."
"I think the Lord wants you to be here. I think the Lord wants me to be here. Because me being here helps you," he said at a later point.
The Maroubra man is facing 20 charges over conduct alleged by five separate women, including sexual touching, indecent assault and common assault between 2014 and 2020.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and argues he tried to create a collegial work environment but no sexual activity ever occurred.
On Monday, the young woman told the court her former boss had boasted about how he could take her to "great heights" by mentoring her during her law degree and had aimed for her to become a politician.
"I will get you places that you could only dream of," he's heard saying during a recorded monologue.
"I'm offering you the world. Do you want the world or not?"
Referring to himself as a "friendly older brother", he frequently helped the woman with her university assignments either at her parents' home or when the pair stayed back late at the office.
Eventually wanting to put some distance between them, the woman says she started doing assignments by herself in a move that prompted Zumbo's ire.
"He essentially said, 'You're rejecting my friendship. Do you want this friendship to continue?'" she told the court.
The hearing in front of magistrate Gareth Christofi continues on Tuesday.
