The Meatpacking District hotel infamous for its guests’ exhibitionist antics was the scene of an attempted rape last weekend when an Australian man threw himself on a chambermaid, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.
Matthew Moorhouse, 42, was arrested at the Standard Hotel Saturday after allegedly pinning the woman on a bed as she tried to clean the room.
The alleged violence came months after The Post reported that the hotel had become a hot spot for naked guests letting it all hang out in front of its signature floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking High Line Park.
Moorhouse, a Sydney resident who used to date pop star Rani Kamal — daughter of Australian singer Kamal — allegedly attacked the 28-year-old maid moments after she began cleaning his $400-a-night room at 4:25 p.m. “He just asked me, ‘Where are you from? How long have you been here?’ ” the still-shaken housekeeper told The Post.
He then asked if she had a boyfriend, she said.
“I said, ‘No, why do you ask me that?’ ” the maid said.
“He asked me, ‘Do you think I’m handsome?’ He went to hug me. And then he pushed me onto the bed.
“I said, ‘No!’ And then he continued to kiss my face.”
She let out a shriek heard by another hotel worker, who banged on the locked door.
“I screamed, ‘OK, come in please!’ ” the woman said.
Moorhouse jumped off the maid, who ran away and alerted hotel security, she said. Cops arrested him in his room. Moorhouse is charged with attempted rape, sexual abuse and unlawful imprisonment, and remains locked up in lieu of $20,000 bail.
“I think about his face and what happened,” said the traumatized woman. Moorhouse’s relatives, meanwhile, found the charges hard to believe.
His mother, Thelma, said, “The [type of behavior] is not Matthew . . . I’m very concerned — anyone would be.”
An uncle, Andrew, noted his nephew was born and raised in the outback and became a computer expert. “I’ve never known him to be in any trouble,” he said. “He’s a nice kid.”
The hotel said the safety of guests and workers “is of utmost importance to us.”
Additional reporting
by Greg Stolz in Brisbane, Aus
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