Consent laws: Second rape victim speaks out about unequal justice

Jane was one of two women who accused the same man of raping them in separate incidents. While the other woman secured a guilty verdict, the jury didn’t believe her when she told them she didn’t give consent. Here’s her story.

Jane told a court she said “stop” ­before a man forced her to have sex — but the jury decided she wasn’t telling the truth or didn’t make herself clear and found him not guilty.

Yet the same jury found the same man guilty of attacking another young woman, Holly Leppard, who shared her story for the first time in The Saturday Telegraph.

Now Jane, a pseudonym, is ­bravely sharing her heartbreaking experience of the justice system.

“It should be the defendant who has to defend himself,” the now 21-year-old told The Sunday Telegraph.

“Because we felt like we were ­defending ourselves.”

Wollongong DJ Remzi Bektasovski, 22, pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting Jane and Holly Leppard, both 17 at the time, in separate incidents in 2016 and 2017.

This year a jury found him guilty of raping Ms Leppard but acquitted him of raping Jane.

The case provides a glimpse into the pressures placed on sexual ­assault victims in the justice system and how juries must determine the legal concept of consent.

The two young women walked away from the process with completely different outcomes but were united in their trauma and, now, are united in their empowerment.

Holly Leppard and Jane (not her real name) became friends although the outcome of their case was very different. Picture: Tim Hunter

Jane alleged Bektasovski had sex with her without her consent at her home in late 2016.

In her evidence in his trial earlier this year, she said Bektasovski painfully gripped her shoulders, ignored her demands to stop and raped her.

“I went quiet … I didn’t know what to do because I couldn’t do anything,” she told the court.

Jane said she was contacted by police in April 2019 after Ms Leppard made a formal statement about her own rape at the hands of Bektasovski.

Bektasovski sexually assaulted Ms Leppard after she asked him for help with computer software in 2017.

It was another 18 months before both girls, who weren’t allowed to speak to each other during the court process, made formal statements to police.

Holly Leppard was sexually assaulted when she was 17. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

When it came time for Jane to give evidence in the trial of Bektasovski, who pleaded not guilty to all charges, she didn’t know what to ­expect. She sat in a remote witness room in front of a camera and a split screen showing the judge and jury.

Her saving grace was a witness support officer who held her hand under the table.

“That was one of the most scary things,” she said.

“You are put up on a screen, I didn’t know what to expect or what would be asked and they just hit you with questions. They make you ­relive it over and over again.

“It’s terrifying and your feelings and emotions aren’t really accoun­ted for. You’re not really a person in court, you just do your part and leave.”

Jane told the jury she had consensual sex with Bektasovski once before the alleged assault.

“The second time I said no and I didn’t want to do it,” she said.

Bektasovski denied the charge, telling the jury the sex was consensual. His legal team suggested Jane and Bektasovski had actually been in a relationship and the pair had consensual sex four times.

“I felt like he was trying to question why I was lying,” she said.

“Why would I go through two years of court and put myself through this trauma just to lie about something like this? I don’t see the point.”

The entire process left her ­depleted and confused. In mid-January, after the jury had deliberated for a day, Jane received a phone call from the leading detective, prosecutor and witness support officer.

“They apologised for everything and said the jury had found him not guilty on my case,” she said.

“I broke down crying. I feel let down by the system. It was heartbreaking to know there are individ­uals in that jury who don’t actually believe me or had their own opinions of what happened.”

Judge Andrew Haesler later said the verdict reflected the jury’s ­acceptance of her evidence that “she may not have conveyed her absence of consent”.

Jane believed her previous consensual sex with Bektasovski may have been hard for the jury to put in context with her rape allegation.

Yet Jane says she would still ­encourage other woman who feel they have been assaulted to come forward.

She joined Ms Leppard at the sentencing hearing on April 30.

“I said to her I might not have got the guilty verdict but at least some sort of justice has been done,” Jane said.

“I was so grateful to know she was there throughout it all. I knew she would be there for me and the same goes for her.”

On March 30 Bektasovski was sentenced to five-and-a-half years jail with a non-parole period of three years and four months.

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