The young woman at the centre of one of Australiaās most controversial rape trials talks to Four Corners.
She was a teenage virgin on her first night out in Sydneyās King Cross. He was the son of a wealthy night club owner. They met on the dance floor. Minutes later, he ushered her out into a laneway. What happened next has had devastating consequences for both of them.
The young man had sex with the teenager, without her consent, but the court found it wasnāt rape. The manās acquittal, on the grounds that he didnāt know the teenager had not consented, shocked many and provoked troubling questions about how the law interprets consent in rape cases.
The young woman says sheās still haunted by the ordeal. Under the law, the young womanās identity has been kept secret. Now she has chosen to speak to Four Corners in the hope that others will learn from her experience. In a searing interview, she talks of how the incident and the years of legal action have impacted on her life.
This shocking account serves as a serious warning about the need to understand what consent is and the consequences of getting it wrong.
The rape case that put sexual consent on trial (2018) | Four Corners
