A man accused of raping his friend's 13-year-old sister at his birthday party has been found guilty.
Warning: this story contains details of sexual assault.
The man, who will not be named to protect the identity of the victim, appeared in the Supreme Court in Launceston on October 22, 2026.
The jury left to deliberate at 10.32am and returned a guilty verdict almost six hours later, ending a three-day trial.
The man will next appear in court on November 4, 2026, for sentencing submissions.
The case centred on whether he raped a 13-year-old girl at her brother's birthday party when he was 16 years old.
It was the state's case that he raped the girl by putting his hands down her pants and penetrating her vagina with his finger.
His defence lawyer, Fran McCracken, said the assault did not happen.
The trial centred on one person's evidence
The jury had to decide whether the 13-year-old girl was telling the truth about the rape.
She first confided in authorities soon after the rape, but did not tell her parents about it, only after a teacher was alerted.
She said, giving evidence during the trial, that she tried to tell her sister but couldn't get the words out.
The rape only came to light after a teacher saw the girl and her friend playing a game of hangman during class.
The teacher saw the answer to the game was "sexual assault", though the victim said it was abbreviated to "SA", and the court heard one of the clues she gave was "something that happened to me recently".
Fundamental to the jury's decision was the reliability of the witnesses.
Ms McCracken pointed out a number of contradictions in the girl's evidence and highlighted that she initially lied to police.
The rape was said to have occurred near a fire pit, which witnesses said was seldom empty.
Ms McCracken said if the had rape happened, someone would have seen something, though the girl maintained no one was at the fire pit at the time of the rape.
Ms McCracken also pointed out inconsistencies in when the victim told her family about the incident, how dark the area of the attack was and whether she was crying after the attack.
Man now awaits sentencing
The man who was found guilty of the rape did not give evidence during the trial, though his police interview was tendered as evidence.
Crown prosecutor Emily Judd pointed out to the jury that the man told police multiple times that he was not sitting near the girl, contradicting evidence given by four witnesses and a video shown in court.
Witnesses also told the court that the two were alone together briefly that night.
Ms Judd said this showed the accused had the opportunity to commit the rape.
The man found guilty now awaits sentencing. Sexual offences in Tasmania have a maximum punishment of 21 years' imprisonment.
Support is available for those who may be distressed.