Australian judge acquits 25-yr-old rape accused, calls act unromantic, quick'

Sydney: An Australian court on Thursday found a 25-year-old man not guilty of raping 18-year-old virgin girl, calling the rape ‘unromantic and quick’.

According to a report in Daily Mail, Luke Lazarus, former private schoolboy, was acquitted after a District Court judge said the alleged rape victim 'did not say stop or no' and that the victim had given consent to him.

In 2013, Lazarus allegedly raped the victim in the backyard of his father’s Kings Cross nightclub – which is inside Hourigan Lane, Potts Point. The incident happened within three minutes of their meeting on the dance floor, said the report.

The court also heard that the victim, who was four pegs down, got carried away and kissed Lazarus on the dance floor. The accused then took her to back side of the club for privacy where he sodomised her forcefully.

The CCTV footage of the club, the only evidence of the entire incident, showed how the victim went with Lazarus to the backyard and did not stop him.

While giving his statement to the court, Lazarus insisted he had every reason to believe the 18-year-old was happy to have sex with him.

Countering his statement, Crown Prosecutor Cate Dodds submitted that Lazarus had taken advantage of the woman, who had been 'substantially intoxicated'.

“He never asked her if he could do it and he never told her he was going to do it”’ Dodds added in his argument in court.

But defence counsel Phillip Boulten said the woman conceded she may have 'pushed back' when Lazarus penetrated her.

According to Lazarus, the girl got offended and filed a rape complaint when he asked her to write her name below other women's names on a note in his phone, which he described as a 'trophy list'.

The victim accepted the fact that she kissed the club owner’s son, however, she claimed she wasn’t interested in intercourse.

But Judge Robyn Tupman acquitted Lazarus of all charges.