Max Factor heir flees date rape trial

ANDREW LUSTER, an heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune, was declared a fugitive yesterday after he vanished during his trial on date rape charges.

Police in California said the 39-year-old, who has denied 87 charges including rape, sexual battery and poisoning, disappeared over the weekend.

The great grandson of the famed make-up artist was supposed to be wearing an electronic tracking device while free on $1 million bail.

But he was not seen after meeting his probation officer last Friday morning. A search was launched when he did not check in again 12 hours later.

“The chances of getting Mr Luster back here may be slim,” Ventura County Superior Court Judge Ken Riley said before resuming the trial without him.

Prosecutors say Luster used the date-rape drug GHB to knock out women before attacking them. He faces life in prison if convicted.

Luster’s defence lawyer Roger Diamond said there was a chance his client had been kidnapped or involved in an accident. But the judge said that was unlikely, given that his car, pet dog and collection of Chumash Indian art were also missing.

Luster was arrested in July 2000 after police raided his home and found 17 videos and photographs of him having sex with apparently unconscious women.

Defence lawyers have suggested the women were pretending to be asleep in order to make porn films and that Luster only took part in consensual sex.

Judge Riley yesterday told jurors to ignore the fact Luster was no longer present in the courtroom as the case resumed after a two-week holiday.

Prosecutors then showed a video in which Luster addressed the camera, saying some people dream of spending the holidays with their families.

“I dream of this. A strawberry blonde passed out on my bed,” he said as a woman snored loudly in the background.

The woman, who authorities say was 17 when the film was made, has told the court she had no memory of the encounter. “It was very disgusting to me,” the woman, now 23, said of seeing the tape. “It was like seeing yourself raped in the third person and there is nothing you can do about it.”