Charlie Leo McCulloch found not guilty of rape

There were tears from an Ocean St DJ’s family as a jury revealed its verdict in the rape trial after two hours of deliberations.

Charlie Leo McCulloch has been found not guilty of rape following a trial in the Maroochydore District Court.

The family of a Sunshine Coast man burst into tears as a jury found the young DJ not guilty of rape.

After more than two hours of deliberations the jury told the Maroochydore District Court shortly after 11am on Thursday, November 2, they found Charlie Leo McCulloch, 22, not guilty of one charge of rape.

It was alleged to the jury over the three-day trial that Mr McCulloch had raped a woman he met while at the Post Office bar in May 2021.

The jury heard during the trial the woman alleged she had returned to Mr McCulloch’s house and spoken with a number of his friends before going upstairs to bed.

It was then alleged she woke to Mr McCulloch raping her.

Crown prosecutor Rebecca Marks called a number of witness throughout the trial, with one telling the jury the woman had run downstairs saying “your friend just raped me”.

In his summing up statement to the jury on Wednesday, defence barrister Michael Copley said the woman’s allegations she woke up to Mr McCulloch raping her were “ridiculous”.

“Her evidence that her underwear was lowered and penetration achieved without waking her when she was sober is ridiculous,” Mr Copley said.

“It cannot be accepted by you applying common sense.”

Mr Copley also told the jury the witness evidence given on Tuesday, in which it was established the alleged victim had referred to Mr McCulloch as looking “nerdy”, was a plausible reason she had changed her mind during consensual sex, alleging rape.

“A plausible scenario is this, embarrassed about having sex with someone who looked like him at a time when she had a boyfriend, she dealt with it by asserting the sex occurred while she was asleep so therefore it was rape she said,” Mr Copley said.