Two men, Besufikad Haile and Bedhane Bekele found guilty of raping teen after drunk night at Zhivago in 2023

A jury has returned their verdicts in the case against three men accused of raping a drunk, vulnerable teen and filming the horror on Snapchat.

Two men who lured a drunk teenager into a taxi, took turns assaulting her before raping her at their home and filming it on Snapchat have been found guilty after a month long trial.

Besufikad Yebeltal Haile, 24 from Parafield Gardens, Bedhane Tarika Bekele, 28 of Croydon Park and Sadam Hussein Issak, 24 from Gilberton were all charged over the horrific rape and indecent assault of an 18-year-old woman in 2023.

Each had pleaded not guilty.

Over the nearly month long trial, a District Court jury heard the teenager had been out drinking with a friend on the evening of June 18, 2023.

She had been left alone on Leigh St after 3am when she was approached by the men she had never met, before getting into a taxi with them.

Opening the trial, prosecutor Chris Allen said CCTV footage from the inside of the taxi showed the victim “extremely intoxicated”, but also showed Bekele touching up the woman’s dress, and forcing her head down to perform sexual acts.

The court heard that when they arrived at an address in West Croydon, the men each engaged in sexual intercourse with the woman, with some of the acts filmed on a mobile phone.

Bedhane Tarika Bekele at a jury view to the scene during the trial. Picture: Emma Brasier

The Jury in the Zhivago rape trial visited various locations in the Adelaide CBD. Besufikad Yebeltal Haile at the view. Picture: Emma Brasier

Mr Allen said she appeared to be crying at some stage during the nearly hour-long altercation, with one of the males seen later in the footage holding condoms.

Throughout the trial, the jury heard from the victim in closed court proceedings, as well as her mother, several police officers and investigators, as well as witnesses from nightclubs in the CBD and security guards.

In the final days of the trial, however, before closing addresses by both defence and prosecutors, Judge Joana Fuller directed the jury to acquit Mr Issak of all charges after hearing no case submissions from counsel.

“Counsel for all three accused argued that there was no case to answer on each count that relied upon joint criminal enterprise liability as the pathway to guilt,” she said.

Joint criminal enterprise is a legal concept where individuals who are charged with a crime can be held criminally responsible even if they did not physically commit it, so long as there was an established agreement among each accused that they would engage in the conduct.

Judge Fuller said counsel for the three accused had argued there was “no agreement to commit the crime” and that she had reached the conclusion that “each accused was acting individually and there was no agreement formed between Bekele and Mr Issak before they got into the taxi and in which Haile later joined”.

She told the jury that all charges against Mr Issak relied on that joint enterprise liability, and that he is not alleged to have engaged in the sexual activity which is the subject of any charges against him.

The court heard the accused met the victim after she spent a drunken night at the Zhivago nightclub. Picture: Emma Brasier

Sadam Huessein Issak arriving in court during the trial. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

The jury were subsequently directed to deliver not guilty verdicts on all counts against Mr Issak, meaning he is no longer charged with any crime.

She further dismissed three counts each against Bekele and Haile.

In his closing address, prosecutor Chris Allen told the jury that the victim had said she was “so f***ed” when she was in the taxi.

“We say that footage shows that she is intoxicated, so intoxicated that she in incapable of consenting to the touching by Mr Bekele,” he said.

“He has the opportunity to observe her for some time prior to getting in the taxi. He knows that she is grossly intoxicated and he proceeds regardless.”

Just after 5pm on June 17, the jury returned a majority verdict of guilty to one count of rape against Mr Haile. They found Bekele guilty by majority verdict of one count each of rape and indecent assault, but unanimously not guilty of a second count of indecent assault.

Haile will remain on bail, but Bekele was remanded in custody.

They will return to court in August.

Originally published as Two men, Besufikad Haile and Bedhane Bekele found guilty of raping teen after drunk night at Zhivago in 2023