Supreme Court sets aside Jeffrey Banu’s conviction in 2017 Cairns cane field gang rape

One of the cousins who was found guilty of aiding in the horrific gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in a Cairns cane field in 2017 has been acquitted after an appeal.

One of the cousins who was found guilty of aiding in the horrific gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in a Cairns cane field in 2017 has been acquitted after an appeal.

Three of the four men found guilty in September 2021 appealed their convictions last year, with the Court of Appeal publishing its decision this week.

Francis Peter’s and Tom Ingui’s appeals were dismissed, but justices McMurdo, Bond and Dalton allowed Jeffery Banu’s appeal and set his convictions aside.

The case has been before the court for several years.

An initial jury trial found the four men, including Aaron Anau who was not part of the recent appeal, guilty of raping the girl.

But those convictions were set aside by the Queensland Court of Appeal in October 2020 after finding two major flaws in the case.

In September 2021 the case again went to trial, and a second jury again convicted the four men.

The gang rape took place in a Cairns cane field. Picture: Cameron Bates

Anau, Ingui, and Peter were all found to have raped the girl and to have aided each other.

Jeffery Banu was found to have not raped the girl, but he was found guilty on three counts of rape because he had aided the other three.

The jury believed the case advanced by Crown prosecutor Aaron Dunkerton, who told the court the girl had been drinking at a unit in Edmonton that day and had passed out.

She later woke to being yelled at and forced out of the unit by its owner.

One of the next things the girl remembered was lying in the boot of Banu’s car with her legs hanging out, Mr Dunkerton told the court.

It was night and she saw sugar cane all around.

She had no clothing on her lower half and Anau was raping her, the court heard.

“She yelled at him, ‘get off me you rapist dog’ and tried to push him off. But he didn’t stop,” Mr Dunkerton said.

“And while he was having sex with her – she saw Mr Banu, Mr Ingui and Mr Peter, that is the other three defendants, standing behind the car, talking to each other.”

The court heard Mr Ingui and Mr Peter also took turns raping the girl, but that she was unable to identify her fourth assailant.

On October 15, 2021 Anau was sentenced to 15 years on three counts of rape.

James McArdle was a no show at the Cairns Court House on Tuesday afternoon with his extradition to Victoria scheduled for Wednesday.

Ingui was sentenced to 21-and-a-half years on three counts of rape.

Peter was sentenced to nine years imprisonment, and Jeffrey Banu was sentenced to six years on three counts of rape.

In a Court of Appeal decision published on January 12, the justices found that while Banu had a conversation with the others at the time of the rape, there was no evidence about what sort of conversation it was.

Mr Banu had driven a car with the other men and the victim to the cane field, but again the justices found no evidence as to his intention, and nor did they see evidence that he knew the offending would occur.

Justice Jean Dalton found the Crown had not done enough to prove that Mr Banu aided and abetted his cousins by “a deliberate and encouraging presence during the rapes”.

She found the verdicts against him were unreasonable and he was entitled to be acquitted on all three charges.

On the day of the verdicts in September 2021, Mr Banu’s 15-year-old son died after ingesting prescription drugs at a Mackay address.

Originally published as Supreme Court sets aside Jeffrey Banu’s conviction in 2017 Cairns cane field gang rape