Source : Perth Now news
A British musician and media personality accused of violently raping a fan in a hotel will be allowed to return to the UK while he awaits retrial.
Rapper Yung Filly, who is legally known as Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, faced trial in July over his 2024 encounter with a 20-year-old woman after a Perth nightclub gig.
The 31-year-old was found guilty of two assault offences and acquitted of three sexual penetration charges following an eight-day trial in Western Australia’s district court.
Not guilty verdicts were also returned for one charge of impeding the woman’s breathing by applying pressure to her neck and one count of assault occasioning bodily harm.
The jury was hung on three other sexual penetration counts and Barrientos is set to be retried for the charges, however, no date has been set for the hearing.
The influencer returned to court on Thursday, where Judge Linda Black granted an application to vary his bail so he can go home while he awaits trial.
Judge Black said even though the retrial would be expedited and likely happen in 2027, there could still be a delay.
“It seems to me it is appropriate to return to his home country until he is needed for his retrial,” she said.
Barrientos’s revised bail conditions include reaching his UK home by August 31 and staying there until he returns to Perth for the trial.
He’s also not allowed to contact the complainant or a key witness and cannot comment on the case in any way.
Under the conditions, Barrientos will be required to return to Australia 10 days before his retrial and must surrender his passport within 24 hours.
Barrientos’s trial heard that he was on his first tour of Australia when he met the woman in a nightclub VIP area.
Prosecutors alleged the performer got aggressive during consensual intercourse.
It was at this point that prosecutors said consensual sex stopped, triggering the six counts of sexual penetration without consent.
The assaults the musician was convicted of stem from Barrientos biting the woman’s face and neck.
He called them love bites and said they involved sucking and tongue movements, and his teeth came into contact with the woman’s skin.
The trial has halted the career of the Colombia-born South London singer and comedian.
As Yung Filly, he has featured in the BBC’s celebrity version of Bake Off and presented light entertainment programs including dating show Hot Property.
Those appearances helped grow a large following across TikTok (three million followers), YouTube (1.8 million subscribers) and Spotify (850,000 monthly listeners).
His case will return to court on September 25.
