Australian Defence Force Academy cadet faces trial for alleged rape

CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to an alleged sexual assault.

A trial has started against a man accused of sexually and indecently assaulting a fellow cadet at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA).

Angus Ross Robertson, 24, pleaded not guilty to four charges in his ACT Supreme Court jury trial, which started on Tuesday (1 April).

Jurors heard he and his alleged victim were both in the Australian Defence Force and did have a consensual sexual encounter sometime before the alleged assault.

Then on a night in October 2022, he arrived back at ADFA, where he lived, after drinking alcohol with his “rugby mates”, prosecutor Marcus Dyason said in his opening submissions.

He said Mr Robertson ran into the woman at the academy, and then they went into a room and started kissing, but she allegedly told him they were only going to kiss and would not have sex.

“I don’t want to do anything,” she allegedly told him.

Mr Dyason alleged Mr Robertson was persistent in trying to get the woman to have sex with him, making several comments to her like, “Oh come on, you know you want to have sex with me” and “Come on, just say yes”.

He is alleged to have indecently touched her body twice. Also, she is alleged to have told him, “I don’t want you to do it”, before he digitally raped her.

Mr Dyason alleged the woman eventually said, “Yeah, sure”, to Mr Robertson in a not very enthusiastic tone, then he started having sex with her. This was not “freely given consent”, he argued.

“To put it plainly, she wasn’t participating at all,” Mr Dyason alleged.

It is alleged the woman then said, “I don’t want this”, two times, but Mr Robertson didn’t stop until she pushed him off.

Mr Dyason said several days later, Mr Robertson was arguing with another woman who he’d had sex with and told her that he and his alleged victim had sex on the night of the alleged assault.

This second woman then contacted the alleged victim and told her that Mr Robertson had scabies at the time. The alleged victim went to a health centre where she asked for a sexually-transmitted disease check and if any additional tests were needed as the sex she’d had was not consensual.

Shortly afterwards, she reported the matter to the military police, who began an investigation.

The military police interviewed Mr Robertson three times that year. He agreed he had sex with the woman that night but claimed it was completely consensual.

However, Mr Dyason said he also told military police he hadn’t been drinking alcohol that night, which was false.

Also, the prosecutor said that during the first interview, Mr Robertson claimed the sex stopped because the woman told him she had an event to go to. But in the third interview, he said he was the one who stopped it.

“I brought it to an end,” Mr Robertson reportedly said.

“Everything was completely normal.”

Mr Dyason said that in 2023, the military police decided not to prosecute Mr Robertson but to refer the matter to ACT Policing.

Defence barrister Sharyn Hall SC, in her opening submissions, told jurors there was only one matter in dispute in the trial.

“Did [the woman] consent to the sexual activity between herself and Mr Robertson [that night]?” she said.

Ms Hall said her client maintained that the sex was consensual and the woman had been actively involved.

Mr Robertson pleaded not guilty to two counts each of sexual intercourse without consent and committing an act of indecency without consent.

The trial continues before Justice David Mossop.

If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT 02 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call Triple Zero.