Rape trial jury discharged
THE trial of a young man charged with raping a woman he met on a night out in Cairns has resulted in a hung jury.
Claude Stephen Thomsen, 27, pleaded not guilty to one count of rape in the Cairns District Court on Monday.
During the course of the four-day trial, two very different accounts of an evening in October 2020 emerged.
On Wednesday afternoon after deliberating for almost two hours, the jury asked to review certain parts of evidence given by one of the woman’s friends. By 4.30pm on Wednesday the jury sent a note to Judge Anthony Rafter SC, saying they were unable to reach a unanimous decision and asking what to do next.
Judge Rafter directed the jury to resume deliberations on Friday morning, and after a total of four hours of deliberations, another note was issued saying the jury were well short of a majority verdict.
The jury was discharged and the trial was adjourned to the next callover listing on October 10.
The trial had heard how Mr Thomsen was out celebrating the end of season with his fellow JCU Mariners Rugby Union Club mates on the night of October 17, 2020, when he crossed paths with the young woman at an after-party.
Defence barrister Michael Dalton described it as “lust at first sight”. He suggested to the jury that at the point of time the woman went to bed, knowing she was sleeping in the bed of Mr Thomsen, she wanted “a dalliance with Claude”.
Mr Dalton said the jury should accept Mr Thomsen’s evidence that with consent, he touched the woman on her underwear and stopped when told to do so, and that there was no penetration.
“It cannot be rape if there was no penetration,” Mr Dalton said.
Mr Dalton told the jury the elephant in the room was the woman’s boyfriend, who she’d been in a lengthy relationship with – and still was.
Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Kelso in her opening address to the jury told the court how early in the morning of October 18, 2020, a young woman woke to find a hand rubbing the outside of her underwear before penetrating her.
“She had no idea who they belonged to,” Ms Kelso said.
Ms Kelso said the woman, as she was leaving the room, recognised the young man in the bed as one she had met earlier in the evening.
“The interactions had been so brief she couldn’t even tell you his name,” she said.