Gladstone District Court: Ezra David Gregory Joe Yow Yeh found guilty of rape and common assault

A Gladstone man will serve less than half of his sentence behind bars after he was found guilty by a jury of rape and assault following a night of drug-induced violence against a teenage girl.

A jury has found a young Gladstone man guilty of raping and assaulting a teenage girl after a violent, drug-fuelled altercation where he “bizarrely” believed she was hiding things from him.

The trial of Ezra David Gregory Joe Yow Yeh culminated on Thursday morning in the Gladstone District Court when a jury, after more than a day of deliberating, found him guilty of one count of rape and one count of common assault.

He was found not guilty and acquitted on a second charge of rape.

Yow Yeh, 21, was found guilty of digitally raping the anus of a girl on October 31, 2020, when he was 19 and she was 16.

In the trial of Ezra David Gregory Joe Yow Yeh, 21 he was found guilty by jury decision on one count of rape and one count of common assault.Picture: social media

Crown prosecutor Michael Andronicus told Judge Michael Byrne KC that Yow Yeh told the victim he was “looking for something” that she was hiding from him.

Mr Andronicus said the victim did not consent to the act and had no prior warning of it, telling Yow Yeh “no” and to “stop” multiple times.

The crown submitted the offending was “degrading, humiliating, and invasive” and there was further humiliation for the victim who was chased out of the house onto a public street about 11pm.

The court heard that following the rape, the victim was followed from a Barney Point house and an argument began which included Yow Yeh confiscating her phone.

Shortly after, Yow Yeh assaulted the victim by grabbing her by the hair and dragging her to the ground near the rail bridge at the corner of Toolooa and Coon streets.

In his sentencing, Judge Byrne KC said the offending relating to the rape charge was neither fleeting nor protracted.

Judge Byrne said the “bizarre” version of events that Yow Yeh believed she was hiding things from him made little sense outside of defence submissions that he was affected by drugs at the time.

Defence barrister Julie Marsden told the court that Yow Yeh had not taken drugs before meeting the victim but she had used methamphetamines for at least six months before they met.

Ms Marsden told Judge Byrne that at the time of the offending Yow Yeh’s parents had split and other family issues meant he was in a vulnerable position.

Ms Marsden said Yow Yeh remained someone with “huge potential” and had stopped using recreational drugs and moved to Mackay where he was gainfully employed.

She said he had also strengthened positive relationships with his family who had a strong showing in the gallery throughout the trial.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Byrne said he accepted prosecution submissions that the offending occurred within the context that Yow Yeh was in a position of trust and there was a degree of control by him over the victim.

Yow Yeh was sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment for one count of rape, which was ordered to be served concurrently with a three-year sentence for a seperate charge, and seven days for common assault.

The sentence was ordered to be suspended after 20 months with Judge Byrne declaring 337 days of pre-sentence custody as time served.