An Australian Defence Force Academy cadet has been found guilty of raping a woman in her dorm room even though she said “yeah, sure” to his persistent demands for sex.
Angus Ross Robertson, 24, fought two counts of sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of committing an act of indecency on a person without consent, but an ACT Supreme Court jury found him guilty of all four charges on Wednesday.
Robertson had claimed the pair had consensual sex in the woman’s military college dormitory in Canberra in October 2022, and his lawyer Sharyn Hall SC argued that consent had been strongly implied, saying her client was not a mind reader, ABC News reported.
She also argued that the woman, who was also a cadet, made the rape claim to protect her own reputation after sleeping with a man who was “supposed to be attached to someone else”, The Canberra Times reported.
But prosecutor Marcus Dyason made the case that the woman set a clear boundary by repeatedly saying she didn’t do want to do more than kiss, and that consent was therefore not freely and voluntarily given.
Mr Dyason told the court Robertson was “persistent in getting her to have sexual intercourse”.
“[The woman] eventually says ‘yeah sure’ in not a very enthusiastic tone,” he said.
After the jury delivered their unanimous verdict, which caused members of the gallery to gasp while Robertson shook his head, Mr Dyason said “imprisonment is inevitable” but did not oppose bail.
Bail was continued and Robertson will return to court in July for sentencing.
Header image: The Australian Defence Force Academy (By Kurt Barnett – UNSW Canberra, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link).
