Tradie found not guilty of rape
A tradesman has been found not guilty after a brief trial where he was accused of raping a 19-year-old girl at her own birthday party near Toowoomba.
The Darling Downs man, who cannot be identified to protect the identity of the victim, pleaded not guilty to one charge of rape in Warwick District Court on May 2 and the jury of six men and six women were selected.
In her opening address to the jury on May 7, Crown prosecutor Arielle Spiteri said the alleged rape happened on February 17, 2023, when a young Toowoomba woman was celebrating her 19th birthday at a property south of the city.
The 31-year-old man, described as a “loose family friend of the victim”, was attending the birthday party with about 30 others at a property which included an undercover area featuring a bar and a hot tub.
“She was in the hot tub around 11pm, wearing a bikini, while he was playing music on a speaker,” Ms Spiteri told the court.
“She got out of the tub to change music to a song she liked.”
Ms Spiteri told the jury the man allegedly grabbed the teenager’s bottom before sliding his hand into her bikini, rubbing and then inserting his fingers into her genitalia.
“He told her ‘you must like it’ while she froze,” Ms Spiteri said, adding the teen ran away and was seen crying by friends.
However, lawyers for the man told the jury a significant issue would be whether the alleged rape was even “biomechanically possible” given how both parties were standing/positioned.
The defence also noted the jury would hear about a “covert” cold call to the man from the victim where he denied directly to her even after she said she had “all these witnesses”.
The jury returned a notguilty verdict late Wednesday, and the man was acquitted of the charge.
“She was in the hot tub around 11pm, wearing a bikini Arielle Spiteri Crown prosecutor