Tyson Alexander Ellul found guilty of rape

A jury has found a young Brisbane man guilty of raping a woman after a night out at a pub ended with her in hospital suffering confronting injuries.

Tyson Alexander Ellul is on trial for allegedly raping a young woman in Kingaroy.

A young Brisbane man has been convicted of a rape by a jury after two days of deliberation.

Tyson Alexander Ellul, 22, was found to have carried out a disturbing attack on a woman he met at a Kingaroy pub.

The South Burnett trial heard from multiple witnesses, including police, friends of both the defendant and the victim, as well as a DNA expert.

As the verdict was read out on Thursday afternoon Mr Ellul remained expressionless while his partner, seated alongside other supporters, broke down in tears.

The trial had been told Ellul, who was 18 at the time, raped the victim by “penetrating her anus with his penis or a part of his body that wasn’t his penis or with a thing, and that (the victim) did not consent to that because she couldn’t because of the state of intoxication that she was in”.

The pair met at the Kingaroy Hotel where Ellul, who was 18 at the time, was out with friends.

Crown Prosecutor Sarah McCray said Ellul met the complainant during the course of the evening.

“He began flirting with her. (The complainant) remembers playing pool together,” Ms McCray said.

“The next thing she remembers is waking up in the Kingaroy Hospital with a sore bottom.”

The court heard Ellul told police that when he was walking the victim home, she “collapsed” at the service station.

He said he waved over another man from the pub before leaving and that man helped the young woman and they walked off together.

Tyson Alexander Ellul is on trial for allegedly raping a young woman in Kingaroy after a night out.

Ms Mc Cray said that after the young woman’s family contacted the police later that night, officers found the complainant “lying on the living room floor with her head in her mother’s lap, crying and vomiting”.

She was taken to Kingaroy Hospital, where an examination revealed an injury to her anus.

Ms McCray said the following day, the complainant sent a message to Ellul asking what had happened, as she “couldn’t remember anything” after playing pool.

“(Ellul) replied, ‘Me and (another man) walked you home and then walked home. You wanted to walk by yourself, but we wouldn’t let you because you were f****d,’” Ms McCray said.

The court heard police later searched Ellul’s home and interviewed him.

“He denied anally penetrating (the victim),” Ms McCray said.

A DNA expert testified about forensic evidence (cells) found on the victim’s clothing, including semen discovered on the waistband.

Some of these cells were likely from Ellul and the alleged victim, but DNA from an unknown person was also identified, the court heard.

Several of the samples, including those from the victim’s underwear, contained DNA from two or three individuals.

In some cases, the DNA compared to Mr Ellul’s profile showed a higher likelihood of belonging to him than someone else.

In other cases, the DNA was more likely to have come from someone else.

The expert said it was possible the DNA got there from “touch transfer” but there was no way of knowing.

Semen was also detected on the woman’s waistband, but the expert told the court it had been determined that it did not belong to Ellul.

Tyson Alexander Ellul is on trial for allegedly raping a young woman in Kingaroy.

A key witness told the trial he had been drinking at the pub when he saw two men and the alleged victim leave together.

He described seeing the men “rushing” the young woman out the doors while he was also leaving.

He said he happened to be walking in the same direction as the group and called out to them.

The witness testified that he “had a strange feeling” and confronted one of the men.

“I told him to go home because I felt something was going on,” he said.

The witness said he lost sight of the other man and the woman but followed them down the street to see where they had gone.

“I went around the corner and checked the first car, the second car, and then the third car, where they were,” he said.

“Before I even got close to the cars, I heard someone making … strange noises.

“He was on top of her … on the bonnet of the car.

“I told him to get off her, and I called her to come towards me and explain what was happening.

“She said she was being raped.”

The witness said he called her mother on her phone before walking her back to the hotel.

Kingaroy Court. File Photo.

Under cross-examination, Ellul’s barrister, Jason Buckland, questioned the witness about his own criminal history and challenged inconsistencies between his testimony and his original statement to police.

“I suggest you followed them because you had a sexual interest in that girl,” Mr Buckland said.

“You have a sexual interest in young women, don’t you?” he asked.

The witness denied both allegations but later admitted to previous convictions under further questioning.

The court heard the witness had been convicted of producing and possessing child exploitation material after he filmed a young girl while she took a shower.

Police found him hiding in a disabled toilet, along with women’s and children’s underwear.

Images were later discovered showing him wearing some of the garments. He was also convicted of possessing tainted property.

In a separate incident, the witness had been convicted of stealing a mobile phone, the court heard.

At the conclusion of cross-examination, Mr Buckland described the witness’s testimony as a “tissue of lies”.

“Did you sodomise that girl on that night?” Mr Buckland asked.

“I didn’t touch that girl, mate. I helped her,” the witness replied.

In his closing argument, Mr Buckland criticised the eyewitness’s testimony as “downright terrible,” labelling the man an “unreliable witness.”

He referenced CCTV footage showing the victim and his client holding hands and suggested that when the victim went to the bathroom, she could have inadvertently transferred Ellul’s DNA from her hands to her underwear.

Mr Buckland also emphasised the presence of another person’s DNA in the victim’s underwear, along with sperm found on her jeans.

“You might think that is devastating to the Crown’s case,” Mr Buckland said.

He then offered two alternative hypotheses to the jury; the first that the victim may have accidentally caused her own anal injury with her long fingernails, which he described as “talons”.

In a second scenario, the eyewitness himself may have been the one who assaulted the victim.

The case was presented to a jury of six men and six women, who began deliberations on Wednesday afternoon.

By Thursday afternoon, they had reached a verdict, finding Ellul guilty.

His partner remained inconsolable outside the courtroom.

Sentencing is scheduled for Friday morning.

Originally published as Tyson Alexander Ellul found guilty of rape