A “high-profile Sydney man” cleared of rape can finally be named after a court lifted an order suppressing his identity 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 a verdict on charges involving two others.
The 44-year-old was tried at Downing Center District Court on nine charges relating to alleged incidents between 2014 and 2017. the ABC reported.
Lister pleaded not guilty to five counts of sexual intercourse without consent, as well as one charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, indecent assault and threatening to distribute an intimate image.
A non-publication order preventing Lister from being identified in connection with the charges was first issued by a magistrate in 2020 after he received death threats.
Lister, who has been described as ‘Australia’s Banksy’, faced a six-week trial that started in August and ran until the end of October, but the suppression order was only lifted on Thursday.
Four of the women Lister allegedly attacked were aged between 19 and 21, while the fifth was 29.
One claimed she had been tattooed without her consent and raped on another occasion.
Anthony Lister was found not guilty of raping two women and assaulting a third. A jury could not reach a verdict on the charges involving two other women
The famed street artist 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.
Lister was ultimately 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 five remaining charges, including three counts of rape involving two women.
Judge John Pickering lifted the order not to publish Lister’s name following requests from the media.
Lister was acquitted of charges that he raped a woman in 2017 while she posed for him.
He was also acquitted of touching another woman’s breasts during a drug-fueled evening of art-making in 2015.
Defense barrister David Scully SC had told the jury that the complainants admired Lister for his fame in the street art world and that any sexual activity was consensual.
Judge Pickering rejected a submission from Lister’s defense that identifying him would influence potential jurors.
“That seems so unlikely for many reasons, including – with the utmost respect to Anthony Lister – that he is not that incredibly famous in this town,” he said.
“I find it difficult to understand what is so important about this trial that an order should be made.”
Judge Pickering went so far as to say it was ‘quite embarrassing’ to read that media reports of Lister’s trial referred to him as a ‘high-profile Sydney man’.
He also rejected defense arguments that Lister had previously received online threats and published his address, claiming the artist could remove himself from social media.