Add Category
A former army officer cadet found guilty of raping a colleague by an ACT Supreme Court jury last week has been freed on bail, as his lawyers prepare to appeal against the verdicts.
Jake Sullivan, 24, was found guilty of three charges, including rape and assault, but was cleared of three other charges, including two more of rape and one act of indecency.
The court heard the pair had agreed to have sex, but the woman said after about ten minutes Sullivan had become aggressive.
She said he'd pulled her hair, and twisted her breast causing a bruise.
All of the charges stemmed from the events after the woman said Sullivan had become aggressive.
Today Sullivan's barrister Jack Pappas said he had already lodged an appeal, which will claim the jury verdicts are inconsistent and likely to have been the result of "confusion or compromise".
Mr Pappas said the appeal will also claim the verdicts are unreasonable and unsafe.
"We say there are very good reasons to believe his appeal will be successful," Mr Pappas said as he urged the court to grant bail.
Mr Sullivan was found guilty of three charges, including rape and assault, in the ACT Supreme Court last week. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)
But prosecutor Katie McCann said it was a "high threshold" to show a jury had delivered inconsistent verdicts.
"There are some prospects but certainly not good ones," Ms McCann told the court.
Ms McCann also warned the court the risks of him not showing up to court which were low before the trial had increased in light of the verdicts.
But Justice Belinda Baker said the appeal did appear to have some prospects of success, and decided to allow bail, after considering the three guilty verdicts against the three not guilty verdicts.
"The basis for differentiating those counts is not clear to me at present," Justice Baker said.
"This ground does appear to me to have some merit."
Justice Baker noted if the challenge to the guilty verdicts were to succeed the consequence would be a retrial on those counts.
Sullivan has been released to live with his family, under a strict curfew, with daily reporting to police.
He has been ordered to stay away from the woman or any of the witnesses in the case.
A sentence date is yet to be set, and any appeal is unlikely to be run until mid next year.