Edisson Garcia found not guilty of ‘jerking off’ stranger outside Mindil Beach casino

After retiring to considering their verdict on Friday morning it took jurors less than a day to decide the 36-year-old’s fate.

Edisson Garcia outside the Supreme Court in Darwin after pleading not guilty to gross indecency. Picture: Jason Walls

A man accused of “jerking off” a complete stranger as he slept off a night on the town outside the Mindil Beach casino has been found not guilty of gross indecency.

Edisson Garcia, 36, was acquitted in the Supreme Court on Friday of committing an act of gross indecency on the other man after he passed out following a night of heavy drinking.

On the first day of his trial on Monday, Crown prosecutor Marty Aust had told the jury the man woke up to find Garcia “pretty much jerking [him] off” in September 2022.

But defence barrister Mary Chalmers SC argued the PhD student “would literally have to be insane” to have risked doing such a “dangerous, risky and foolhardy thing” in public.

“We have a saying that truth can be stranger than fiction and that’s true, from time to time, strange things do happen, but usually the truth is much more mundane,” she said.

“We don’t live in a Netflix series about disturbed sexual predators who’ve somehow evaded authorities for their entire 35 years posing as a PhD student, that’s not real life.”

‘You’d have to be insane’ to ‘jerk off’ a sleeping stranger, court told

A Darwin PhD student “would literally have to be insane” to have “jerked off” a sleeping man against his will on the side of a busy road, a court has heard.

Edisson Garcia, 36, pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court to committing an act of gross indecency on the other man after he passed out following a night of heavy drinking in September 2022.

In closing the defence case on Thursday, his barrister Mary Chalmers SC submitted a series of character references she said showed he was “clearly not the type of person” who would have committed such a crime.

“He’s known, I’d suggest to you, as the type of person who’s pretty likely to be one of those people that stops to check if a young man who’s lying across a footpath in a dangerous position is OK,” she said.

In her closing address to the jury, Ms Chalmers said the first “big problem” with the Crown case was that it “at a fundamental level, doesn’t make sense”.

“According to the Crown case theory, within the space of about five to 10 minutes, he stumbles across two fully clothed sleeping men lying at the bottom of the Darwin high school hill and suddenly, for no reason in particular, decides to sexually molest one of them, pretty much in full view of a main arterial road and with the very large risk that one or both of them will wake up,” she said.

“Now you would literally have to be insane to do that.”

Ms Chalmers said it was “difficult to think of a more dangerous, risky and foolhardy thing to do”, adding that “when things are inherently unlikely, then usually they didn’t happen”.

“We have a saying that truth can be stranger than fiction and that’s true, from time to time, strange things do happen, but usually the truth is much more mundane,” she said.

“We don’t live in a Netflix series about disturbed sexual predators who’ve somehow evaded authorities for their entire 35 years posing as a PhD student, that’s not real life.”

In his final address, Crown prosecutor Marty Aust said it was “completely ridiculous” that the alleged victim, who was a serving member of the defence force at the time, would make up the allegation to avoid getting in trouble with his superiors.

“You might ask yourself – ‘I just wouldn’t say anything, I’d just go home’,” he said.

“Why say anything? Let the man go, you assault him and then he goes on his way and you hightail it out of there and nobody ever says a word to anybody.”

The jury is expected to retire to consider its verdict on Friday morning.

‘Maybe he was just trying to be funny’, gross indecency trial hears

A man who allegedly “jerked off” a complete stranger as he slept off a night on the town outside the Mindil Beach casino might have been “just trying to be funny”, a court has heard.

Edisson Garcia, 36, pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court on Monday to committing an act of gross indecency on the other man in the early hours of September 3, 2022.

On the third day of his trial on Wednesday, the alleged victim’s friend who had been sleeping beside him at the time, told the court he was woken by his former Defence Force colleague yelling at Garcia.

In police body-worn footage played to the court, an officer is heard asking the man whether it was “possible that this was a misunderstanding”.

“I don’t know if the guy’s gay or not but maybe he was just trying to be funny,” the alleged victim’s friend replied.

Under cross examination, the witness agreed with defence barrister Mary Chalmers SC that it was “a violent scene that confronted you when you first came to”.

“Were you worried that (your friend) was going to assault the man?” she asked.

“Yes, I was worried.”

The witness, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the alleged victim, told Ms Chalmers he had urged his friend not to make any “dumb decisions” and risk getting “kicked out of Defence”.

“(He) had said some pretty crazy things when he was worked up?” she asked.

“Yes,” he replied.

The trial continues.

Man who allegedly ‘jerked off’ stranger outside casino faces trial

A man who allegedly began “jerking off” a complete stranger while he slept off a night on the town outside the casino has faced the first day of his trial in the Supreme Court.

Edisson Garcia, 36, pleaded not guilty on Monday to committing an act of gross indecency on the other man near Mindil Beach in the early hours of September 3, 2022.

Crown prosecutor Marty Aust said the man had met up with a friend at Uncle Sam’s after a night drinking “at various different establishments” before heading to the casino at about 5am.

Finding the venue already closed, Mr Aust said the two men then walked a short distance away and fell asleep on the footpath before Garcia approached them at about 6.20am.

It was then Mr Aust said the man woke to find Garcia “pretty much jerking [him] off”.

Edisson Garcia outside the Supreme Court in Darwin after pleading not guilty to gross indecency. Picture: Jason Walls

“The first thing [he] does is say ‘What the f--k are you doing, why are you touching me?’ and the accused replied with words to the effect of ‘What, don’t you like it when I touch your penis?’,” he said.

The man then said ‘No, c--t I don’t like it, I’m calling the cops’ and the accused said ‘No, all I was doing was touching your penis’.”

Mr Aust said the man then managed to wake his sleeping friend before chasing after Garcia and holding him down while the other man called police who arrived a short time later.

In response, defence barrister Mary Chalmers SC said while her client agreed he was in the area at the time, the entire prosecution case rested on the evidence of the complainant, which Mr Garcia denied.

“He is the only person who gives direct evidence in this trial about any jerking off or gross indecency or running away,” she said.

“There’s no dispute that Mr Garcia was the person who approached the men, including (the complainant), and there’s no dispute that Mr Garcia is the person that (he) jumped up and grabbed and later made an accusation against.

“What is 100 per cent in dispute is what actually happened in that location – the defence case is that there was no sexual or indecent touching of (the complainant) at any time whatsoever.”

Ms Chalmers said the complainant’s account was “unreliable” and “umpteen swabs” from his clothing and body had produced “no supporting scientific evidence of (the) allegation.”

“I’ll have a lot more to say about the evidence and the very large problems with the Crown case at the end of the trial,” she said.

The trial continues in Darwin on Tuesday.