Ex-Liberal MP Rory Amon found not guilty of most charges after being accused of raping 13-year-old boy in Sydney | New South Wales
A former Liberal MP could face a second child abuse trial after a jury cleared him of some but not all charges involving a 13-year-old boy.
Rory Amon was found not guilty Monday of four counts of child rape, two counts of attempted child rape and two counts of indecent assault after three days of deliberations.
But jurors at the trial in the NSW supreme court were unable to reach a verdict on charges of rape and indecent assault of a child.
The deadlocked jury was dismissed.
Amon lowered his eyes and maintained a blank expression as jurors found him not guilty on eight charges.
He was then seen leaving the dock with a big grin and hugging his lawyer.
The 36-year-old man pleaded not guilty to all charges and denied any wrongdoing.
Amon admitted to meeting the teenager once for sex in 2017, but denied allegations of a second meeting soon after.
He testified that he had an honest and reasonable belief that the teenager was over 16 years of age. The two met online on an adults-only website.
The hearing was told the boy exaggerated his age when signing up to the gay hookup app and talking to Amon.
Amon, then 27 and aspiring to a life in politics, and the boy took their arguments to Snapchat, where explicit messages and images were posted, before meeting in person.
The jury heard Amon arrived at the teenager’s block of flats wearing tracksuits and ugg boots before the pair moved into a small, dirty bathroom at the bottom of the building.
The Crown argued that Amon saw the teenager in explicit photographs, under streetlights and in the burning bathroom before the lights were turned off.
This would have made it clear to Amon that the teenager was under 16, the jury was told.
“He told me he was 17 and nothing I saw changed that belief,” Amon said.
Amon, who was arrested in August 2024, has denied charges of sexual intercourse with a child, two counts of attempted sexual intercourse with a child and indecent assault.
Eight of the charges related to the boy allegedly meeting Amon for a second time in a parking lot restroom in July 2017.
Jurors were told the boy soon told his friends, mother, school counselor and psychologist about the incident.
Five years later he made a formal complaint to the police.
The two briefly reconnected on Grindr in 2022, when Amon sent him more photos, including one wearing a volunteer firefighter uniform.
When he first contacted the youth in 2017, Amon was working full-time for federal Mackellar MP Jason Falinski.
He would serve two terms on the Northern Beaches council before being elected as a Liberal MP for the state seat of Pittwater in 2023.
The charges killed Amon’s fledgling career in provincial politics, forcing him to be expelled from the Liberal party and resign following his election in March 2023.
His exit also had implications for the state Liberals, who lost their formerly safe seat to a teal independent in the next by-election.
