Disgraced celebrity agent Ralph Carr has cried as a judge sentenced him to six years in prison after he was found guilty of raping a woman in an "appalling" attack.
Carr's last-ditch legal bid to halt his case was today denied by Judge Frank Gucciardo, ending his hopes of a release on bail ahead of an appeal.
The former manager of top Australian singers and Richmond AFL great Dustin Martin will have to serve a minimum of four years before he is eligible for parole.
Carr faced the County Court via video link, sobbing, shaking his head and muttering to himself throughout the hearing.
"Your conduct was appalling," Judge Gucciardo said.
A jury found Carr guilty of two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault dating to March 23, 2023.
The woman had visited Carr's house to discuss a job opportunity before the pair headed to the celebrity agent's friend's place to watch football.
A night of drinking and drug-taking followed, the trial heard, before Carr raped the woman when the pair returned to his West Melbourne home.
The attack lasted a matter of seconds, the woman testified, before she punched Carr in the face and called him "a f***ing rapist".
The woman said Carr later asked her to perform a sexual act on him. She contacted her mother, who called the police.
Describing the offending, Judge Gucciardo said Carr had taken advantage of an intoxicated, vulnerable young woman who had repeatedly told Carr she did not want a sexual relationship.
Before the attack, the woman testified that she told Carr, “I’ll never want to have sex with you. The sooner you understand this the better.”
The judge said while the woman did not author a victim impact statement, the court could infer that Carr's crimes caused emotional, psychological and physical damage to the victim.
Carr denied the allegations of sexual assault and rape and pleaded not guilty at his trial.
"You maintain your innocence of these offences and consequently there is no evidence of your remorse or contrition," Judge Gucciardo said.
Judge Gucciardo said, when setting the sentence, he took into account the public nature of Carr's downfall since the verdict, his age, lack of criminal history and his mental health.
"These offences strike at the most basic values, the norms of a decent society," Judge Gucciardo said.
Carr, currently held at the Melbourne Assessment Prison, will be relocated to the Hopkins Correctional Centre in Ararat.
He is currently classified as a "high-profile" prisoner and subjected to 23-hour lockdowns but those conditions are expected to ease on his relocation, a Corrections Victoria manager testified.
At the height of his career, Carr was an influential figure in the entertainment industry and was married to singer Tina Arena before a bitter falling out.
His company Ralph Carr Management worked with artists including Vanessa Amorosi, Kate Ceberano, Jon Stevens, Pseudo Echo and Deborah Conway.
On his website, which has since been stripped of all detail, Carr touted himself as the "Jerry Maguire of footy".
His sports management clients included ex-AFL star Dustin Martin, who has since severed ties with Carr.
In court last week, Carr's barrister, Dermot Dann, spoke of his client's "good character" and that he was responsible for launching many careers in the entertainment business.
However, prosecutors noted that only one person from the industry had written a character reference for him.
Other women have publicly spoken out about being bullied and sexually harassed by Carr at work, allegations he has denied and not been charged over.
After Carr was charged with raping the woman in 2023, a suppression order was granted on mental health grounds, barring the media from reporting his name in connection with the case.
The secrecy ended almost three years later when Carr was found guilty and abandoned an application to extend the order.
Carr described prison as "a living hell", Mr Dann said, while his psychiatrist said she feared he would not receive adequate treatment for his mental health problems in custody.
The rape case put the issue of suppression orders back under scrutiny in Victoria following a similar scenario in the rape case of Tom Silvagni, the son of AFL great Stephen Silvagni.
The Labor state government and Liberal opposition have pledged to amend the Open Courts Act to limit suppression orders, but are yet to specify how the legislation will change.
Carr's lawyers are expected to lodge legal documents with the Court of Appeal within the next two months.
It could be months before an appeal is heard.
They made a rare application to stay or delay the judge's sentence today on the grounds that the jury's verdict was wrong and because of Carr's mental health.
Judge Gucciardo rejected the application, saying the jury was capable of deciding whether the complainant in the case was a credible witness.
"The jury were entitled to accept her responses as truthful," he said.
