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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Rape |
Sentence: |
3 years |
Years Imprisoned: |
0.92 |
Year Crime: |
2013 |
Year Convicted: |
2015 |
Year Cleared: |
2017 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Australia |
County or Region of Crime: |
New South Wales |
City of Crime: |
Sydney |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated |
Summary of Case: |
"Luke Lazarus was wrongly convicted in April 2015 of raping an 18-year-old woman in Sydney, Australia on May 12, 2013. The young woman claimed she was a virgin when she and the 21-year-old Lazarus had anal sex without her consent after they met at the Soho nightclub. Lazarus' defense was the woman consented. The jury believed the woman in the "she said, he said" case. Lazarus was sentenced to 3 years in prison. Lazarus appealed. Lazarus' conviction was quashed on appeal and a retrial was ordered. On May 4, 2017 Lazarus was acquitted after a bench (judge only) retrial. Judge Robyn Tupman found Lazarus not guilty in ruling, “I have come to the determination that the Crown has not established that there were no reasonable grounds for believing the complainant was not consenting." Judge Tupman also stated, "She did not take any physical action to move away from the intercourse or attempted intercourse, either when they were standing up, or when she was down on the ground on all fours." Judge Tupman found the woman's testimony was unreliable because she was wrong about various provable things that occurred that night. The State appealed. On November 27, 2017 the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed the State's appeal." |
Conviction Caused By: |
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Innocence Proved By: |
"On May 4, 2017 Lazarus was acquitted after a bench (judge only) retrial." |
Defendant Aided By: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
23 |
Age When Released: |
24 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
"Luke Lazarus not guilty of laneway rape outside Kings Cross nightclub, By AAP, Daily Telegraph, May 4, 2017" |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/luke-lazarus-not-guilty-of-laneway-rape-outside-kings-cross-nightclub/news-story/98e14b132cad960c0571249066a0d7ae |
Information Source 2: |
"Ex-public schoolboy jailed for raping virgin outside dad's nightclub and adding her to 'trophy list' has conviction overturned, By Jamie Bullen, Mirror (London), May 4, 2017" |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/ex-public-schoolboy-jailed-raping-10353968 |
Information Source 3: |
"Court of Criminal Appeal upholds Luke Lazarus rape acquittal, By Georgina Mitchell (Staff), The Sydney Morning Herald, November 27, 2017" |
Information Location 3: |
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/court-of-criminal-appeal-upholds-luke-lazarus-rape-acquittal-20171127-gzteon.html |
Information Source 4: |
R v Lazarus [2017] NSWCCA 279 (27 November 2017) |
Information Location 4: |
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWCCA//2017/279.html |
Information Source 5: |
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Information Location 5: |
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Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org