Liam Anthony Thornton, 26, has pleaded not guilty to all charges in his trial. Photo: Albert McKnight.
CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to alleged sexual assault.
A teenager who alleged she was sexually assaulted in a van by a then-employee of the Canberra Reptile Zoo denied his lawyer’s suggestions she consented during the incident and claimed he hurt her “mentally and physically”.
The now-26-year-old Liam Anthony Thornton pleaded not guilty to 14 charges involving two teenage girls when his ACT Supreme Court trial began last week.
Jurors heard it alleged that in the early 2020s, he indecently assaulted the first girl, who was under 16, then later raped the second girl, who was under 18, in his van.
During the cross-examination of the second girl, which was pre-recorded and played to jurors, Mr Thornton’s barrister, Tahn O’Rourke, suggested he had asked the girl if she wanted to have sex with him, to which she replied, “Mhmm”, and when she tried to kiss him, he avoided her.
The barrister suggested she never told him no or pushed him away and she consented to sex.
The girl disagreed with all these suggestions.
Ms O’Rourke suggested the circumstances of how they had sex “hurt your feelings”.
“It hurt me both mentally and physically, of course it did,” the girl replied.
However, she did agree with the barrister’s suggestion that Mr Thornton hadn’t been caring, and she regretted what had occurred.
“He didn’t care about me through the entirety of it,” she said.
“He wasn’t listening to me.”
When a prosecutor re-examined the second girl, she was asked how she felt about Mr Thornton when she first spoke to police in the days after the alleged assault.
“I was more in denial of it happening, and I wanted to believe he was a good person,” she said.
“I wasn’t his biggest fan when it happened, but I will always try and think of people kindly.”
She said now, “I’ve grown from that and I don’t like him”.
On Monday (1 September), jurors also watched the interview the second girl’s father made with police, in which he said he could tell she was upset when she came home after the alleged incident.
He said he and the girl’s mother sat her down a couple of days later and questioned her about what had happened.
“She said she was hurt and she didn’t want to tell,” he said.
“She said that Liam had done some things to her.”
He said she went on to tell them some of the allegations.
“I was so angry, not with my girl, but with Liam,” the father said.
“I had mixed emotions. I was devastated for my daughter and so angry.
“I said, [the girl’s name], this is why I kept telling you over the years, punch them in the nose.”
The father said during this conversation, the second girl was “upset, devastated, blaming herself”.
“She was breaking down and crying, but I was crying too,” he said.
He said she didn’t want to go to the police at first and was worried about getting Mr Thornton in trouble.
The jurors also watched the interview one of the second girl’s friends made with police, in which he said she told him, “Liam” – he didn’t know his last name – sexually assaulted her in a van.
“She only used the word ‘rape’ once… because she didn’t want to make it real,” the friend said.
Mr Thornton pleaded not guilty to three charges over the first girl, being grooming, committing an act of indecency on a young person and using a carriage service for child abuse material.
He pleaded not guilty to 11 charges over the second girl, which were three counts of committing an act of indecency without consent, three counts of attempted sexual intercourse without consent, four counts of sexual intercourse without consent and one count of choking.
The jury trial continues before Justice Belinda Baker.
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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