Alleged Grindr rapist cries when jury finds him not guilty of charges

CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to an alleged sexual assault.

The man accused of raping a stranger he met on the gay dating app Grindr cried in court when a jury announced they had acquitted him of his charges.

It took jurors less than two hours to find Daniel William Monie not guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent at the end of his ACT Supreme Court trial on Thursday (27 July).

After the jury announced they had cleared him of the allegations, Mr Monie was seen putting his head in his hands and starting to cry.

Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson told the 12 jurors that the court was grateful to them for the time they spent on the trial before discharging them.

Mr Monie was then seen hugging his supporters when he was allowed to return to the courtroom’s gallery.

He had been accused of raping the complainant when the latter went to his home in December 2021 to hook up after the pair had been talking over the Grindr app.

The jurors heard the allegations of two counts of rape when the trial started earlier this week.

The closing submissions took place on Wednesday (26 July), during which barrister Matthew Johnston SC said his client denied both alleged offences.

He claimed the complainant never told Mr Monie that he didn’t like to be penetrated.

He said the pair were strangers, but they had been in bed together for a couple of hours and had engaged in consensual sexual activity before the alleged incidents.

Mr Johnston claimed that at one stage his client asked the complainant, “Do you want me?” and the complainant replied, “Yes”. Mr Monie then grabbed some lubricant, opened it and put it on his finger.

“[The complainant] saw that and said nothing,” Mr Johnston said.

He claimed that in the versions of both men, when the complainant said, “It hurts”, his client had stopped what he was doing.

This was consistent with someone who was “trying to be polite and receptive to the needs of others”, the barrister said.

He also said his client had appropriately asked questions and for consent.