A disability support worker has been found not guilty by a jury of raping his teenage client in September 2018.
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The complainant, a then 17-year-old boy, had accused his carer, then an 18-year-old man, of forcefully and violently sexually assaulting him while holding a hand over his mouth and choking him.
The carer stood trial in the Supreme Court in Burnie for the last two days charged with rape, to which he pleaded not guilty.
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It took a jury less than an hour to deliver the not guilty verdict on Tuesday afternoon.
The accused man was interviewed by Tasmania Police the day after the alleged assault, and said he had given his client a "blowjob", but that it was something the teenager wanted to happen.
In a video of the interview shown to the jury, the accused man told police his client had autism and had wanted to discuss his sexuality on the night in question.
The complainant was asked during cross examination by defence lawyer Patrick O'Halloran if he believed the accused man was gay, to which he said yes.
The accused man told police the alleged victim had asked him, over the course of a few minutes, to perform progressively more sexual acts, starting with rubbing him on the leg and culminating in oral sex.
He agreed he had "crossed a line", and said he was uncomfortable and thought he may lose his job.
He said he was scared as the alleged victim had shown him a knife, and he believed he may be in danger if he did not do what his client asked.
An officer suggested he was, as a carer, the one with the power in the situation and he could have just left, and he agreed.
Summarising the case, however, Justice Robert Pearce told the jury it was the defence case they could not be satisfied on the evidence any sexual intercourse had taken place, and if it had, they could not be satisfied it was nonconsensual.
The accused man's mother cried in the public gallery as the verdict was delivered.
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