Dr Richard Emory McGary Jr, pictured outside the ACT Courts in 2024. Photo: Albert McKnight.
CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to sexual assault.
Jurors spent two-and-a-half days deliberating before finding a former Canberra academic guilty of raping two women in the ACT four years apart.
Dr Richard Emory McGary Jr, a man from the US in his late 30s, pleaded not guilty to three charges in his ACT Supreme Court jury trial, which ran for two weeks this month.
Jurors began deliberating on Friday (25 July), then returned to the courtroom before midday on Tuesday (29 July) and announced they had found him guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent.
These counts relate to both women.
However, the jury also found him not guilty of a third count of sexual intercourse without consent, relating to the second woman.
McGary made no visible reaction when the verdicts were delivered.
He hadn’t known either woman for long before the assaults.
Jurors had heard he accepted the sexual acts occurred, but claimed they were consensual, so the issue was whether the women didn’t consent to them.
In 2016, he had been living on campus at the Australian National University. One day, he and the first woman engaged in some consensual sexual activity, but she told him she didn’t want to have sex.
However, the jury found he then had sex with her without her consent while she froze.
Also, in 2020, the second woman said they were kissing before he also had sex with her without her consent, even though she had told him, “No”.
The jurors found this offence was proved as well.
Prosecutor Trent Hickey asked to revoke McGary’s bail after the verdicts were delivered, arguing it was inevitable he would be sentenced to full-time jail and expressing concerns that he lived in Western Australia.
Defence lawyer Andrew Tiedt of JSA NSW opposed this move, stating that as his client had no family in Australia, he needed to return to Perth to settle his affairs before being sentenced.
He stated that his client, who had resided in Australia for the past nine years, had been on bail since December 2021, hadn’t breached his bail, and had returned to court as required, including for the three trial dates set for the case.
Chief Justice Lucy McCallum said in light of the convictions, his lack of community ties and the near-inevitability of a jail sentence, she would revoke bail.
McGary was taken into custody and the matter was adjourned to Wednesday (30 July) to set a sentence date.
During the trial’s closing arguments, prosecutor Emma Bayliss had claimed the two women’s accounts showed McGary tended to “disrespect their personal boundaries” and also had a tendency to ignore communication around a lack of consent.
Mr Hickey alleged that McGary was “sexually dominant and assertive”.
Mr Tiedt said the two women were obviously hurt by what happened between them and his client, but he argued that was a very long way from finding that he committed offences against them.
He argued that the only way to find his client guilty was to conclude that the woman had given honest and reliable evidence.
Mr Tiedt said his client’s evidence sat entirely at odds with the women’s evidence, and jurors might find his client had been clear, consistent and straightforward.
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.
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