By Sarah McPhee and Amber Schultz
Sydney street artist Anthony Lister can be revealed as the high-profile man found not guilty of sexually or indecently assaulting three women after a years-long suppression order on his identity was lifted.
He will face a retrial on charges relating to two other women.
Judge John Pickering lifted the order over Lister’s identity on Thursday – almost two months after verdicts in the 44-year-old’s sexual assault trial in Downing Centre District Court – after a joint fight by The Sydney Morning Herald, the ABC and The Guardian.
Anthony Lister arrives for his trial at Downing Centre District Court.Credit: Steven Siewert
Lister was alleged to have raped four women and indecently assaulted a fifth between 2014 and 2017.
He was accused of forcing himself upon an intern at his house, giving another a “special drink” allegedly laced with the date rape drug GHB, tattooing one complainant without her consent, grabbing one woman by the throat and throwing her to the floor, and tricking another into staying over.
Lister pleaded not guilty to nine charges, including multiple counts of sexual intercourse without consent.
On October 25, after 12 days of deliberations, the jury of nine men and three women found him not guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent, one count of indecent assault and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The acquittals related to the alleged rape of two women and the indecent assault of another.
In a note to the court, the jury said they had reached a “severe impasse” on the remaining five charges, relating to the alleged rape of two other women and allegations Lister assaulted and threatened to distribute a naked video of another. Judge Jane Culver had earlier directed the jury that they could return majority verdicts of 11-1.
He will face a retrial on those charges in 2025.
Crown prosecutor Adrian Robertson had alleged Lister was opportunistic, took “risks” to have sex while others were around, and at times used drugs or alcohol to “disinhibit” women.
The Crown alleged Lister had a tendency to carry out sexual conduct with “usually much younger females”, with limited warning, little to no foreplay, and “where rebuffed, persisting”, while knowing they did not consent, being reckless or holding no honest belief they were consenting.
Lister’s barrister, David Scully, SC, said his client denied the allegations against him, arguing Lister had consensual sex with the women who had “admired” or “idolised” him because of his fame, and that some reinterpreted events after feeling “heartbroken” and betrayed by his behaviour.
Scully told the jury it was not a court of morals or the “Surry Hills rumours or gossip court”, but rather a criminal court and a case involving “very serious charges”.
A separate jury found Lister not guilty of supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug – the 1.8 grams of lysergide or liquid acid, worth up to $225,000, found by police at his Darlinghurst home in March 2020.
Lister said he believed it was cannabis oil, and he had kept it for sentimental reasons as it was from a friend who had died.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).