A girl pleaded not guilty in an ACT Supreme Court trial after she was accused of encouraging a boy to take his own life. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to suicide, mental health and sexual assault.
After days of deliberations and a claim of offensive comments made in the jury room, jurors announced they could not decide whether a girl did try to encourage her ex-boyfriend to take his own life.
The now-17-year-old girl, who legally cannot be named due to her age, fought the allegations against her in an ACT Supreme Court jury trial that began earlier this month and ended last week.
Jurors deliberated for four days before returning to the courtroom on Friday (26 September) and announcing they were unable to agree on a unanimous or majority verdict on any of the girl’s five charges.
Chief Justice Lucy McCallum discharged the jury and said she would adjourn the matter to October to determine whether prosecutors would seek a retrial.
She said the prospect of the girl, who is on bail, enduring a second trial was “a bit confronting”.
Before the trial ended, jurors wrote more than 20 notes to the court asking questions about their deliberations.
Defence barrister Richard Edney applied to discharge the jury in response to one note on Wednesday (24 September), as he said he was concerned some jurors were not basing their deliberations on the evidence.
The Chief Justice refused this application, saying she thought the note was an expression of frustration.
Then, later on Wednesday, another note claimed one juror had been making offensive and disgusting comments and asked whether the jury could take the whole of Thursday off from deliberating as a break.
Mr Edney said the note was highly concerning and that “something very wrong is going on in that room, if someone is acting that way”.
Chief Justice McCallum questioned three jurors in court before allowing the jury to take Thursday off.
During the trial, jurors heard the girl attended the same Canberra school as the boy and allegedly had a short-term relationship with him when she was 14 and he was 15 in 2022.
She allegedly orally raped him, punched him in the face and left his back covered in scratches in this time.
After they broke up, they got into an argument over text because the boy unblocked a friend on social media whom the girl had requested he block.
She allegedly went on to send him more than 100 abusive messages, including “You’re a bad person”, “You’re actually dense”, “You look like a clown”, “You only apologise to people to make yourself feel better”, “Usually I say people can change, but not you”, “You’re a baby and you constantly whine about everything” and “No one likes you any more bro”.
She also allegedly told him “KYS”, an abbreviation that can mean ‘’kill yourself’’.
Jurors heard the boy attempted to take his own life, but was discovered and taken to hospital.
The girl pleaded not guilty to single counts of inciting suicide, sexual intercourse without consent and stalking, as well as two counts of assault.
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 on 02 6280 0900, Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377, Lifeline on 13 11 14, or Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800. In an emergency, call triple zero.
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