Arabic version: هول يدفع ببراءته في محاكمة اغتصاب في وارويك

According to ABC News, Clay Benjamin Hall has pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape at the start of his trial in Warwick District Court. The charges relate to allegations that he raped a teenage girl in Warwick in 2021.

Prosecutors allege Hall met the girl, who was in her late teens at the time, while she was walking home from a house party in the early hours of October 31, 2021. The court heard Hall said he was in town for the rodeo and was trying to reach the local showgrounds. The girl offered to show him a shortcut, prosecutors said.

Crown prosecutor Samantha O’Rourke told the jury that Hall allegedly sexually propositioned the girl before raping her against a tree, vaginally and anally. She said the girl later called her boxing instructor, who took her to Warwick Base Hospital, where police were called.

Defence barrister David Jones KC told the jury it was not disputed that Hall had sex with the girl, but said the issue was consent. He asked jurors to consider the girl’s presentation to police and whether alcohol or another factor could have affected the reliability of her account. The trial, before Justice Philip McCarthy KC, is expected to continue tomorrow.