Tears follow rape verdict
A MAN has wiped tears from his eyes after being acquitted of raping a woman in her own bed following a night out last year.
It took a jury less than two hours to reach the not guilty verdict.
Ryan Talford Marjanovic took to the witness stand in the Southport District Court yesterday on the third day of his trial on a charge of rape.
The woman alleged Marjanovic had raped her in the early hours one morning in June last year following a night where they had both been drinking.
The court heard the woman said she went to bed and had sex with another man but he left and she fell asleep.
She alleged she woke in the morning to the feeling of someone having sex with her.
The woman said she only recognised it was Marjanovic when he handed her a tissue.
She fled the room and told people in the apartment that she had been raped.
For more than a year Marjanovic maintained the sex was consensual.
Marjanovic said he woke up cold in the early hours after falling asleep on the lounge at the party.
He went to the door of the woman who had invited him to the house but it was locked, so he went to his accuser’s room and asked if he could stay in her bed.
He said she agreed and the pair had consensual sex following a brief conversation, kissing and mutual touching.
During cross-examination, crown prosecutor Michael Mitchell put it to Marjanovic that he climbed on top of the woman and put his penis inside her asleep.
“I don’t need to do that,” Marjanovic said. “I don’t need to rape someone to have sex. I’m not like that.”
Marjanvoic’s defence barrister Sarah Thompson said there were inconsistencies in the woman’s story.
Ms Thompson said the woman did not tell a number of people that she was asleep while Marjanovic had sex with her in the following days.
“She failed to mention it to a number of people immediately after, and after she’s had some time to think about it,” Ms Thompson said.
She said there was no doubt the woman went running from the room after Marjanovic handed her a tissue.
“Consider this members of the jury: she immediately changed her mind,” Ms Thompson said.
“Making decisions you then change your mind over does not change the fact that you consented to the intercourse.” knowing she was
I DON’T NEED TO RAPE SOMEONE TO HAVE SEX. I’M NOT LIKE THAT