Trio begin jail time over Aus Day rape

Three men involved in the rape of an unconscious friend with a bottle at a 2015 Australia Day party have begun to serve their six month jail sentence.

Three Queensland men have spent their first night behind bars for raping an unconscious friend with a glass bottle at an Australia Day party.

Family and friends cried inconsolably as Bailey Hayes-Gordon, Nicholas Jackson and Jacob Watson were found guilty by a Brisbane District Court jury of raping the 18-year-old man.

Their week-long trial had heard the victim was held down while passed out drunk in a bedroom and repeatedly penetrated in the anus by the bottle.

The 2015 incident committed by the then-teenagers was also filmed and distributed on Snapchat and in Facebook chats.

Judge Anthony Rafter noted while Hayes-Gordon was the one who penetrated the victim, Jackson's action of holding down the man while Watson filmed it had encouraged each other.

"None of you were appalled or disgusted by what had taken place," Judge Rafter said on Friday.

"This can't be classified as harmless high jinks."

All three were sentenced to two years' jail, suspended after six months spent in custody.

A fourth man, 21-year-old Frazer Eaton, was given a wholly suspended 18-month jail sentence in February after he pleaded guilty to holding the young man's shoulders and spreading his buttocks.

Eaton testified against the other men and denied he gave evidence in exchange for a lighter penalty.


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Source: AAP


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Trio begin jail time over Aus Day rape | SBS News