Luke Lazarus, the 25-year-old man convicted of raping a woman outside his father’s Kings Cross nightclub in 2013, has had his conviction cleared completely.
Lazarus appealed the ruling, and in 2016 New South Wales‘ highest court found that the judge misdirected the jury during the original trial in 2015. He was released from jail after serving 11 months of his three-year sentence.
Now, a judge-only retrial has found Lazarus not guilty of his original conviction, sexual intercourse without consent. Judge Robyn Tupman told the court that she had found Lazarus to have had a reasonable belief that the alleged victim consented to sex:
“I accept that the accused had a genuine and honest belief that the complainant was consenting to intercourse.”
According to 7 News, the alleged victim fled the courtroom in tears.
Source: 7 News.
Image: Getty / Luke Reynolds.
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