Abhishek Timalsina pleaded not guilty in his ACT Supreme Court retrial. Photo: Albert McKnight.
CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to a sexual assault.
A staff member accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a customer in the back of an arts and crafts store in Westfield Belconnen was found guilty of all charges at the end of his retrial.
The first trial against Abhishek Timalsina, which was the first trial in the ACT to involve its new affirmative consent laws, ended with a hung jury in 2023 after jurors were unable to reach any verdicts.
Timalsina, now aged in his early 30s, pleaded not guilty to six charges in his retrial that began before a jury in the ACT Supreme Court earlier this month.
Jurors started deliberating on Tuesday morning (24 June) then returned to the courtroom in the afternoon and announced they had found him guilty of all six charges.
Timalsina did not visibly react to the verdicts.
After the jury was discharged, Justice Verity McWilliam revoked his bail and he was remanded in custody.
She adjourned for sentencing to begin on 20 August.
The jurors had heard that in November 2022, a woman entered an arts and crafts store in Westfield Belconnen just before closing time to buy supplies and began talking to Timalsina, a staff member, about his photography before he allegedly repeatedly asked to take photos of her.
“I felt uncomfortable and said, ‘OK’,” she claimed in an interview with police.
While taking photos, he allegedly asked if she wanted him to kiss her.
But before she responded, he said, “I’m just going to go for it”, and kissed her.
Abhishek Timalsina outside the ACT Courts during his first trial in 2023. Photo: Albert McKnight.
Timalsina was then found to have repeatedly indecently assaulted the woman and raped her twice.
When the retrial began, prosecutor Sofia Janackovic said the woman claimed she was shocked when he kissed her, but kissed him back briefly then pushed him away when he first touched her.
But after this, she felt “quite sick and stopped reacting”.
“There were so many things I could have done differently,” the woman later said to a friend via a text message, saying her brain had “checked out” at the time.
Timalsina told the court “everything” that happened before they had sex made him think he had her consent.
He thought they had been “flirting” when they were talking and taking photos.
“If she had said ‘stop’ or not kissed me … I would have stopped right there,” he said.
Timalsina was found guilty of four counts of committing an act of indecency without consent and two counts of sexual intercourse without consent.
The affirmative consent laws, introduced in 2022, were instituted to recognise that consensual sexual activity involves ongoing and mutual communication and decision-making.
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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