Actor John Jarratt has been found not guilty of a historic sexual assault by a unanimous jury verdict in the NSW District Court.
An unnamed woman alleged that the Wolf Creek star raped her in a Sydney share house in 1976, when she was 19 years old.
The woman claimed that the assault occurred after the pair returned from dinner one night, but that she had put it “to the back of her mind.”
She did not make a formal complaint to police until late 2017, saying that she feared she would not be believed if she came forward.
Jarratt said that he first became aware of the sexual assault allegations when he saw them on the front page of a newspaper, and he called the claims a “scandalous lie.”
When giving evidence, Jarratt did not deny having sex with the woman, but said that the encounter was consensual, and described her account of the evening as a “fantasy”.
He denied the woman’s claim that he smelled of alcohol when they had sex, saying that he was driving that night and was therefore not drinking.
He described the sex as “spontaneous”, and told the court that the woman instructed him to be quiet so as to avoid waking his then-wife Rosa Miano.
Speaking to reporters outside the district court, John Jarratt said that he was “relieved” by the outcome, and added that the jury took fifteen minutes to reach a unanimous verdict.
He thanked his legal team and said that he was “over the moon” with the result.
