Source : Perth Now news
A World of Warcraft enthusiast and police officer has been acquitted of raping a heavily intoxicated woman he’d only just met face-to-face.
Taylor Johnson was found not guilty on Thursday after being tried over the sexual encounter during a social weekend of online gaming.
The Victoria Police officer, his partner and the complainant were all avid players of the role-playing game World of Warcraft, the Sydney District Court jury was told.
The three were members of the same “guild” in the online game and its leader organised for members to meet in Sydney in March 2025, prosecutor Daniel Rainey said.
The guild would conduct twice-weekly raids in the game, agreed facts in the case stated.
After arriving in Sydney separately, the trio met for the first time in person at the Fortress gaming venue in the city centre to participate in a raid for their guild, the jury heard.
Over the course of the night, the three consumed a lot of alcohol, with the complainant in particular becoming heavily affected, Mr Rainey said.
In the early hours of the morning, Johnson started to kiss and sexually touch the intoxicated complainant at a nightclub consensually, the jury heard.
The three took an Uber back to Johnson and his partner’s hotel, where CCTV would show the complainant could no longer stand or walk on her own, the prosecutor said.
Having wheeled out a trundle bed for the alleged victim to sleep on, Johnson got in the room’s main bed with his partner, the court heard.
About 4.30am, Johnson and the complainant had sex on the trundle bed while his partner slept in the main bed next to them.
Johnson’s barrister argued the sex was “completely and entirely consensual”.
The officer denied the complainant’s allegation that she was asleep when the intercourse commenced.
Johnson’s barrister told the jury the alleged victim, who had also travelled from Victoria, was a willing participant.
“The complainant, despite the alcohol she had consumed … did and could consent to this sex,” Harriet Skinner said.
The jury returned a not-guilty verdict on Thursday to one count of sexual intercourse without consent.
Victoria Police were contacted about Johnson’s employment status.
