Racing driver goes on trial for alleged rape of nurse at Schumacher family mansion

An Australian racing driver accused of raping Michael Schumacher's nurse at the F1 legend's family mansion has gone on trial in Switzerland.

Joey Mawson, 30, previously raced in European F3 with Schumacher's son, Mick, and the pair remained friends having been team-mates at Van Amersfoort Racing and title rivals in the ADAC F4 championship in 2016.

His friendship with Mick saw Mawson stay at the Schumacher mansion in Gland, near Geneva on more than one occasion, with the driver accused of sexually assaulting a member of the F1 legend's medical team in 2019.

Mawson failed to show up to the trial when it was first opened in October 2025 and after being reported 'missing', the case was adjourned to 'a date to be fixed'.

The rape trial has now commenced in a Swiss court, with both Mawson and the unnamed nurse present.

No members of the Schumacher family have been implicated nor were they listed as witnesses in the case at the Nyon District Court.

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Trial commences in Swiss court

The court heard the alleged victim woke up in a bedroom in the mansion where she worked, lying on blood-stained sheets, but allegedly unable to recall the events that had unfolded the night before.

Mawson had been staying in the main house on the estate around the time of the alleged incident in 2019 and after an evening of heavy drinking, is accused of sexually abusing the nurse in an upstairs bedroom of the property.

The alleged victim is in her thirties and worked in the mansion as part of the medical team who provided on-site care to the seven-time champion after suffering a head injury in a tragic skiing accident in 2013.

The nurse told the court she had been informed by a colleague that she was heavily intoxicated and was carried to her room by staff after she had joined Mawson and others for drinks after her shift.

The Australian driver is then alleged to have gone into the bedroom and committed two counts of rape. He denies the charges and claims he had a 'consensual relationship' with the woman.

Mawson was quoted by the Daily Mail as telling the court: "I hadn’t realised how drunk I actually was. It wasn’t until the next morning that I realised how drunk I had been. During the night, I had assumed she was less drunk than I realised the next morning."

He later added: "She was not intoxicated, she was alert and conscious, she was flirting and she managed to get her leg on the pool table. You could see from her body language she was being flirtatious. I knocked on her room and she invited me in."

After learning of the nurse's allegations towards him, Mawson told the court that he sent a series of apologetic texts to the member of Schumacher's in-house care team, citing it as being the 'gentlemanly' thing to do.

Prosecution read out text messages Mawson had sent to the nurse, one of which read: "I'm so sorry from the bottom of my heart".

Court documents state the nurse was found to have injuries consistent with being restrained by force following an examination after the alleged rapes.

In his closing argument, prosecutor Xavier Christe noted differences in Mawson's testimony from earlier statements he provided to investigators, questioning claims of his own memory loss considering his clear recollection of helping the nurse back into bed after he finding she had fallen out of it when he had been sent to check on her.

The nurse’s lawyer, Patrick Michod, told the court how the alleged victim had been hired by the Schumacher family because she was, "a brilliant professional who was outstanding in her job," adding that after working for the family for six years, she was considered part of their, "inner circle of trust."

"In all those years, there was never even the slightest accusation against her," he told the court on Tuesday, before speaking of a 'brutal dismissal' in 2020, questioning the official reason for her termination.

The trial was scheduled to finish at 6pm local time on Tuesday, with an official verdict yet to be announced.

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Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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