Three men found guilty of raping unconscious man with beer bottle at Australia Day party
BREAKING: Three men have been found guilty of raping a teenager with a beer bottle, after he passed out at an Australia Day party.
THREE men have been found guilty of raping a teenager with a beer bottle after he passed out at an Australia Day party.
Bailey Hayes-Gordon, Jacob Watson and Nicholas Jackson have spent the last week on trial in the Brisbane District Court after pleading not guilty to assaulting the 19-year-old man in 2015.
A jury convicted all three men on Friday.
The courtroom erupted at the conviction of the three men, with outbursts, sobs and wails from family and friends accompanying the jury’s guilty verdict.
Judge Anthony Rafter repeatedly warned supporters in the public gallery to remain quiet amid outbursts, including one woman saying she would kill herself and another yelling that co-accused Frazer Eaton was a “liar”.
Eaton, a talented Australian rules footballer, had been given a wholly suspended 18-month jail sentence in February, after he pleaded guilty to holding the young man’s shoulders during the incident.
After the jury’s verdict on Friday, one man was visibly shaking in the public gallery, while some had their head in their hands and others were consoling each other in disbelief.
During the four-day trial, the prosecution alleged Jackson rolled the teenager over and restrained him by his feet, Watson took video footage on his phone and Hayes-Gordon — as the principal offender — inserted the bottle.
Footage of the alleged assault was later shared in Facebook conversations, with Hayes-Gordon accused of posting the video and screenshots, and writing: “(The complainant) passed out so we stuck a bottle up his a*** and he just took it ... Funniest thing I’ve ever seen, legit.”
But taking to the witness box on Wednesday, Hayes-Gordon denied penetrating the complainant with a bottle and said his comments were an “over-exaggeration”.
He also described the dynamic among his friends as “prankish” and said they often teased each other.
Pressed by Crown Prosecutor Caroline Marco if his social media messages were the true account and he had only changed his story after being charged, he said: “That’s completely not true”.
Watson and Jackson did not give evidence in the trial.
The jury delivered their verdict around noon on Friday after retiring to deliberate at 3.40pm on Thursday.