A ‘high-profile Sydney man’ cleared of rape can finally be named after a court lifted an order suppressing his identity that had been in place for the past four years.
Street artist Anthony Lister was found not guilty of raping two women and indecently assaulting a third, while a jury was unable to reach verdicts on allegations involving two others.
The 44-year-old man stood trial at Downing Center District Court on nine charges relating to alleged incidents between 2014 and 2017. ABC reported.
Lister has pleaded not guilty to five counts of sexual intercourse without consent, as well as one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, indecent assault and threatening to distribute an intimate image.
A magistrate first issued a non-publication order in 2020 preventing Lister from being identified in connection with the charges after he received death threats.
Lister, described as ‘Australia’s Banksy’, faced a six-week trial that began in August and lasted until the end of October, but the suppression order was not lifted until Thursday.
Four of the women Lister allegedly assaulted were between 19 and 21 years old, while the fifth was 29 years old.
One claimed she was tattooed without her consent and raped on another occasion.
Anthony Lister was found not guilty of raping two women and indecently assaulting a third. A jury could not reach verdicts on accusations involving two other women
The renowned street performer has pleaded not guilty to five counts of sexual intercourse without consent, as well as one count each of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, indecent assault and threatening to distribute an intimate image.
Lister was eventually found not guilty of four charges: two of sexual intercourse without consent, one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one of indecent assault.
He will be tried again next year on the remaining five charges, which include three counts of rape involving two women.
Judge John Pickering lifted the order not to publish Lister’s name after media requests.
Lister was cleared of an allegation that he raped a woman while she posed for him in 2017.
He was also acquitted of touching another woman’s breasts during a night of drug-fueled art-making in 2015.
Barrister David Scully SC had told the jury that the plaintiffs admired Lister for his fame in the street art world and that any sexual activity was consensual.
Judge Pickering rejected a claim by Lister’s defense that identifying him would influence potential jurors.
“That seems very unlikely for many reasons, one of them being, with the greatest respect to Anthony Lister, he’s not that incredibly famous in this city,” he said.
“It is difficult for me to see what is so significant about this trial that an order is necessary.”
Judge Pickering went so far as to say it was “a little embarrassing” to read that media reports of Lister’s trial referred to him as a “high-profile Sydney man”.
He also rejected defense allegations that Lister had previously received online threats and had his address posted, stating that the artist could withdraw from social media.