Rape jury to consider verdict

A Crown prosecutor has told a jury that once they accepted the complainant’s evidence in full they would find a man “guilty on all counts” of rape and indecent treatment of a child under 16.

Phillip Aryem, 29, pleaded not guilty to three charges of rape and one of indecent treatment of a child under 16 on the first day of the trial on Tuesday.

Defence counsel for Mr Aryem, Brydie Bilic, addressed the jury first on Thursday morning, telling them the easiest place to plant a lie was in the middle of the truth, which is what the complainant, who cannot be named, had done in this case.

First she gave a story about her supposed romance to her friends, then a different story to police, Ms Bilic told jurors.

Several times Ms Bilic characterised the complainant’s behaviour as “bizarre”, such as creating a social media account in the name of Mr Aryem’s daughter.

“When I asked her if she was pretending to be the man’s daughter, she said ‘I don’t remember’,” Ms Bilic told jurors.

“The Crown case relies on the evidence of just one witness, which is exactly the type of case in which the risk of a terrible miscarriage of justice is at its highest.”

She reminded jurors that the lead police officer’s evidence heard earlier revealed police had done “not so much as a Google search. No texts, no evidence of anyone seeing texts between the pair”.

She outlined 10 inconsistencies in the complainant’s evidence, including telling police she and Mr Aryem were friends who “hung out and watched TV”, then later saying they only met twice and both times he offended against her.

“None of us can read her mind, we don’t know how she behaves when she is being deceitful.

“There were times when she said adamantly one thing and then completely changed.”

Crown prosecutor Claudia Georgouras told jurors Mr Aryem knew the complainant was interested in him.

“He’d heard she liked him. Her behaviour and her liking the defendant, speaking to him, adding him on social media, you have to look at that in the light of a 13-year-old child who has a crush on an adult man.

“He knew that she was 13 and he was the adult in that situation. He picked her up on two occasions to take her to those locations you’ve heard about. He did that with the purpose of sexually offending against her.”

Ms Georgouras told the court the complainant had clearly not wanted to tell police about what had happened.

She told friends, and that was taken to Child Services which led to the alleged incidents being reported.

“She is trying not to tell police, she is clearly embarrassed, she’s not trying to make something up,” she said.

“In the car she said he put a condom on but didn’t use it, it was a digital penetration, and it’s an interesting detail to be adding if she made it up.”

She told jurors in the second and third alleged rapes, the complainant told police Mr Aryem had taken a condom out of the drawer in his bedroom beforehand.

“It’s consistent with the fact she lived through those things,” she said.

Judge Katherine McGinness was due to sum up on Thursday afternoon before the jury retires to consider its verdict.