4 days ago
Qld farmer wins appeal to overturn conviction for raping British backpacker
A Queensland farmer found guilty by a jury of sexual offences against a British backpacker working on his farm in the South Burnett has successfully appealed his conviction.
Wayne Robert Green was found guilty by a jury in the District Court in Kingaroy of one count each of rape and procuring a sexual act by intimidation in May 2024.
The jury found Mr Green had raped a then-21-year-old UK woman while she worked on his Mondure farm near Murgon, about 250 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, in 2017.
During the trial, the Crown successfully argued Mr Green had threatened the woman that he would not sign her visa paperwork or pay her for her farm work unless she performed sexual acts.
Mr Green was sentenced to three years and six months in prison.
He lodged an appeal in the Queensland Court of Appeal in February, claiming the pair had an agreement where sex would be exchanged for her visa and farm work payment.
In his appeal, Mr Green argued a miscarriage of justice had occurred because the complainant had been allowed to give her evidence via video link from the United Kingdom.
The appeal decision stated this created several disruptions to the evidence, including technology issues with the microphone, delay in transmission, and the link dropping out three times for a total of one hour and 13 minutes.
The ruling found there had also been a miscarriage of justice because the complainant gave evidence while it was night-time in the UK, starting her evidence at 12:55am local time and concluding at 7:21am local time.
"It is apparent from viewing her recorded evidence that she grew weary, yet cross-examination continued," the judgement stated.
The judgement referred to the complainant mentioning in her evidence about the lateness of the hour and "having trouble dealing with cross-examination at such a late hour".
Another ground of appeal successfully upheld related to the trial judge, Judge Glen Cash, directing the jury to a matter of contested fact, which the Court of Appeal found had been a miscarriage of justice.
The comment related to the judge directing the jury to "be cautious before reaching conclusions about whether [the complainant's] behaviour is consistent or inconsistent with her allegations being true".
The judgement found this comment provided an "unfair impact" on the verdict.
The Court of Appeal, in a unanimous decision, ordered a new trial for Mr Green and set aside his convictions.
