Wrongly convicted
– Are Australia’s rape reforms sending innocent men to jail?
Bettina Arndt, Aug 05, 2026
Three years ago, Simon, a Sydney engineer, was accused of a home invasion — “aggravated break and enter with intent to commit a serious indictable offence.” His intent was rape, according to police. He’d never even met the woman who accused him, and police showed no interest in his irrefutable evidence that he couldn’t have done it.
They tried to put him away for 20 years. He self-represented through 20 court appearances, won twice in the District Court — with costs against the Crown — and then again when the DPP’s appeal failed, achieving another costs order, in a case significant enough to make the NSW Law Reports. Remarkable, for an unrepresented litigant.
As he said in his first letter to me, these wins prove the case was unfounded — “[the cases] prove I am innocent apparently.” But, he added, “I don’t feel innocent.”