Justyn Mark Keiller found not guilty of Highton rape in 2020

A jury has acquitted a financial adviser of raping a woman in Highton in 2020, days after his lawyer described the prosecution case as ‘smoke and noise’.

Justyn Keiller leaving Geelong Court during the trial.

A Geelong man accused of rape walked free from court after being acquitted on Wednesday.

Justyn Mark Keiller, 36, had faced trial in the County Court in Geelong on a single charge of rape, stemming from an alleged incident at a Highton home in 2020.

After almost two days of deliberation, a jury of six men and six women returned their verdict just after 3pm, finding the financial planner not guilty.

Mr Keiller had consistently denied the allegation against him when interviewed by police, at a committal hearing and on the stand at trial.

The trial before judge Michael Tinney began on April 19, with the prosecution and defence presenting their closing arguments on Monday.

Mr Keiller’s defence lawyer, barrister Lucien Richter, told the court Mr Keiller and the victim had enjoyed a night of flirtatious banter before the alleged incident.

Mr Richter described the prosecution case in his closing argument as “smoke and noise”.

Mr Richter could not be reached for comment after the verdict.

Geelong’s Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) charged Mr Keiller in August 2021 over the incident, which was alleged to have occurred in 2020 after a night out at the Bush Inn (now known as Toorak Hotel) in central Geelong.

The woman’s friend met a friend of Mr Keiller, and the group went back to the home in Highton.

Later that night, Mr Keiller was alleged to have sexually penetrated the woman in a guest bedroom of the house.

While DNA analysis found trace evidence that Mr Keiller touched the woman’s genitals, no evidence of penetration was found.

EARLIER: ‘Smoke and noise’: Closing arguments heard in rape trial

A court has heard a woman had “never been so scared” than during alleged rape at the hands of a financial adviser, while the man’s lawyer rubbished the prosecution’s case as “smoke and noise”.

Justyn Mark Keiller, 38, is on trial in the County Court in Geelong for a single charge of rape.

Mr Keiller is accused of sexually penetrating a woman in a Highton home in 2020, despite her repeated pleas to stop.

The trial, before judge Michael Tinney, began on April 19 and on Monday the jury heard closing arguments from both the Crown and defence.

At the centre of the trial was the question of witness credibility.

Prosecutor Andrew McKenry told the jury the victim was a credible witness who gave a “compelling account”.

“She’s not trying to sell you anything, like a salesman. She’s just telling you how it happened,” he said.

“This person has no interest in convincing you of anything, she’s just reliving.”

Mr McKenry said the woman “passed the test” of cross-examination, despite a “sustained attack” on her credibility.

“(The complainant’s) evidence was compelling, it was detailed … full of the sort of detail of her experience that proves it was something that happened,” he said.

“The attack on her credibility came to nothing.

“You could see on her face, there was nothing made up about that evidence; it was obviously painful for her to recall, the emotional she was showing was genuine.”

Mr McKenry said on the basis of the evidence, which included a taped “pretext” phone call between Mr Keiller and the alleged victim, and the testimony of several witnesses, the jury must find Mr Keiller guilty.

The court heard that DNA indicated skin-on-skin contract was found during an external swab of the alleged victim’s genitalia, and “6400 times” more likely to be Mr Keiller than someone else.

The court heard that a second swab, this time internal, was taken about 12 hours after the alleged rape and did not pick up any DNA. Mr McKenry told the jury Mr Keiller was a “liar” whose “denials have changed their tune”, changing from his initial police interview, to his testimony on the stand to accommodate the DNA evidence.

“It’s not consistent, he’s changed his account,” Mr McKenry said. “That’s not what you expect of an honest witness.”

Mr Keiller’s barrister, Lucien Richter, told the jury it was the alleged victim who was an unreliable witness, and said the alleged rape “clearly didn’t happen”.

Mr Richter said the complainant had built up a false narrative of his client as a “sleazebag” and “sex pest” that was untrue, citing several inconsistencies in her testimony.

Mr Keiller had “emphatically” denied the penetration at every opportunity, Mr Richter said, while discrepancies in the complainant’s story “didn’t make any sense”.

“They are tiny little things, what I hope you (the jury) can see is the building of a false narrative,” he said. “When you pull at these little threads, you realise that each little part of this narrative doesn’t make sense.”

Mr Richter said the DNA evidence supported Mr Keiller’s story, in that no evidence of penetration was found.

“The DNA evidence is precisely what you’d expect to find if he’s telling the truth,” he said.

Mr Richter said his client had been “honest” and “completely candid” and had engaged with the investigation as best he could.

He said his client was a “softly, softly” type of person, who did not explicitly deny raping the complainant during the taped phone call because he was averse to confrontation and didn’t “know if she was crazy”.

“He’s not a threat, he’s a quiet guy … the way that he acted is exactly how you’d expect him to act, because he is innocent,” Mr Richter said.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Tuesday.

Originally published as Justyn Mark Keiller found not guilty of Highton rape in 2020