{"id":234639,"date":"2025-10-23T09:02:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T09:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/234639\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T09:02:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T09:02:09","slug":"canberra-man-found-guilty-of-raping-16-year-old-girl-as-co-accused-has-charge-dismissed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/234639\/","title":{"rendered":"Canberra man found guilty of raping 16-year-old girl as co-accused has charge dismissed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Canberra man has been found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl he took home from the city with her friend in 2022.<\/p>\n

Warning: This story contains descriptions of child sexual abuse.<\/p>\n

Sexual assault\u00a0support lines:1800 Respect National Helpline<\/a>: 1800 737 732Men’s Referral Service<\/a>: 1300 766 491Lifeline<\/a> (24-hour crisis line): 131 114Victims of Crime Helpline<\/a>: 1800 819 817Full Stop Australia<\/a>: 1800 385 578Kids Helpline: 1800 551 800Headspace: 1800 650 890ReachOut<\/a> at au.reachout.com<\/a>Bravehearts: 1800 272 831<\/p>\n

Josh Fenwick, 29, was visibly shocked, putting his head in his hands, as the jury delivered its verdict after a day and a half of deliberations.<\/p>\n

He was also charged with producing child abuse material and using a carriage service to distribute it.<\/p>\n

That charge related to allegations he had filmed himself having sex with one of the girls, before sending it to the other.<\/p>\n

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on either of those two charges.<\/p>\n

Fenwick was charged along with his housemate, Thiago Tonti Fanti, 48, who also faced a charge of rape.<\/p>\n

But the jury found him not guilty of that charge early on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Fenwick’s housemate, Thiago Tonti Fanti, blamed Fenwick for his being charged and was found not guilty of rape. (ABC News: Alfred Beales)<\/p>\n

The court had heard one of the girls had a fight with her mother and ran out of the house before going to the city to go out drinking.<\/p>\n

The pair had met a friend, who also knew Fenwick.<\/p>\n

The two girls eventually went home with Fenwick and another man on the light rail, with others also in the house.<\/p>\n

During the evidence, it emerged Mr Fanti blamed Fenwick for his being charged, calling him a liar and telling him to “be a man” across the courtroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mr Fanti said Fenwick had left owing him rent and had been delaying payment with excuses about not being paid yet.<\/p>\n

He said the first he knew of the allegation was when Fenwick told him police wanted to talk to him about the girl he slept with.<\/p>\n

Mr Fanti said he had no idea what Fenwick was talking about, later telling the court Fenwick was “pretending to have something” because he could not pay the rent.<\/p>\n

Fenwick will be sentenced later this year, but will be allowed to remain on bail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Canberra man has been found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl he took home from the city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[140825,8288,2666,25718,64,63,17192,2667,32385,1105,140828,140826,55313,140829,2289,2668,11554,44,74821,13396,22810,12628,140827,1109,1107],"class_list":["post-234639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-16-year-old","tag-8288","tag-act","tag-act-supreme-court","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bail","tag-canberra","tag-girl","tag-guilty","tag-housemate","tag-josh-fenwick","tag-jury","tag-liar","tag-local-news","tag-local-stories","tag-man","tag-news","tag-not-guilty","tag-rape","tag-teen","tag-teenager","tag-thiago-tonti-fanti","tag-trial","tag-verdict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}