Canberra: Top former junior rugby union star files appeal over rape verdicts
A former junior rugby union star - who is facing probable stint in jail after being convicted of raping a teenager in the back of her car - has launched a bid to have his convictions quashed.
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A former junior rugby union star who was found guilty of raping a teenage girl in the back seat of her car has launched an appeal as he stares down a probable jail sentence.
The athlete cannot be named in the media because he was under 18 when, in 2018, he drunkenly committed an act of indecency without consent and twice raped his victim.
Documents confirm the athlete’s lawyers have filed an appeal in the ACT Court of Appeal, and will ask a panel of three Supreme Court Judges to quash Justice David Mossop’s guilty verdicts.
Court documents reveal the athlete’s lawyers will argue Justice Mossop’s guilty verdicts were “unreasonable having regard to the evidence”.
The athlete’s lawyers want a panel of appeal judges to enter verdicts of not guilty, rather than send the case back for retrial.
The appeal was mentioned briefly in front of a court registrar on Thursday, and is expected to go to hearing late this year.
At a judge-alone trial earlier this year, Justice Mossop accepted the account of the victim as “impressive”.
According to the girl, her burly attacker held her down in the back seat of her car and, despite her telling him to stop, he continued his attack.
He said afterwards, “what, were you being serious?”, before “freaking out”, and saying he through the girl was “teasing him” by “saying ‘no’ but meaning ‘yes’.”
Justice Mossop also rejected the athlete’s account of the night, saying he was “not a particularly impressive witness”.
Ahead of appeal proceedings, the athlete’s legal team are preparing for a sentencing hearing in September, where their client faces the prospect of being sent to Canberra’s notoriously rough prison, the Alexander Maconochie Centre.
If sentenced to actual jail time, the athlete’s legal team would have to argue the appeal has strong prospects of success for their client to be granted bail until the appeal court hands down its decision.