Man convicted of raping stripper with beer bottle was a ‘larrikin who made a mistake’, court hears

A man convicted of raping a stripper with a beer bottle at a Rural Area bucks party in 2017 was ‘a larrikin who made a dreadful mistake’, a court has heard.

Kevin Willcocks outside the Supreme Court during his trial in 2018.

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A MAN convicted of raping a stripper with a beer bottle at a Rural Area bucks party in 2017 was “a larrikin who made a dreadful mistake”, a court has heard.

Kevin Glenn Willcocks was jailed for a minimum of nine months after he was found guilty at trial of putting the end of the bottle into the woman’s vagina during a “triple X dildo show”.

Willcocks was released on a suspended sentence in November last year but is now appealing the conviction and his lawyer, Tim Game SC, told the court prosecutors had failed to prove he knew he didn’t have the woman’s consent.

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Mr Game said the evidence showed the woman was consenting to the men putting the dildo into her vagina as part of the show immediately before Willcocks did what he did.

“It’s a very special case this because a moment before, there is consensual sexual activity, there is consent to the sexual intercourse involving the dildo, so at that moment he has a state of mind of belief in consent,” he said.

“The question is whether or not the Crown can prove that in that moment the state of mind changed.”

Kevin Willcocks outside the Supreme Court during his trial in 2018.

Mr Game said the legal defence of “mistaken belief” acted as a “safety catch” which meant the guilty verdict should be overturned.

“It’s saying if you were acting under a mistaken belief as to what was happening or you were ignorant of things that were happening then you are not criminally liable,” he said.

“It’s ‘I’m a larrikin but I was acting under a dreadful misapprehension’.”

In reply, Director of Public Prosecutions Jack Karczewski QC said Willcocks should have known there was a “substantial risk of lack of consent” in replacing the dildo with the beer bottle.

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“Community values have changed considerably over the years and the community from which the jury was drawn has an understanding of and respect for the fact that persons such as sex workers and persons involved in erotic entertainment are entitled to the protection of the law,” he said.

“The jury, being a modern jury, are entitled to take the view that the applicant proceeded in accordance with an outdated and stereotypical assumption that he was entitled to take liberties with the complainant’s body as he pleased.”

The Court of Criminal Appeal judges reserved their decision until a date to be fixed.

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