Warning: This story contains details some readers may find distressing.
UK social media celebrity Yung Filly has vehemently denied repeatedly raping and violently assaulting a young fan he took back to his hotel room after a gig in Perth, telling a court the “vibe was good” and “she was enjoying my presence”.
The content creator and musician, whose real name is Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, is on trial accused of assaulting the young fan after a nightclub concert in Perth’s northern suburbs in September 2024.
The woman, who had just turned 20 at the time, testified she had consensual sex with Mr Barrientos, before the encounter turned violent and she told him to stop.
The 30-year-old denies all 10 charges against him.
‘That did not happen’
Taking the witness stand this morning, Mr Barrientos said he “fancied” the complainant when she approached him at the concert venue, Bar1 in Hillarys.
An artist impression of Yung Filly testifying in his defence on Monday. (Supplied: Ruth Twardy)
She later gained access to the VIP area and they began chatting, the court heard.
Speaking in a loud, confident voice with a strong east London accent, Mr Barrientos initially denied any physical contact had taken place between the pair in the VIP area, but then said “I recall putting my hand on her waist”.
However, he denied he had put his hands down her pants and touched her breast.
“That did not happen,” he said in response to questioning from his barrister, David Edwardson KC.
He said the “vibes were good” when they arrived at the hotel in Perth’s CBD, although his security guard had taken the young woman’s phone off her, which he said was “standard practice” to “ensure our privacy”.
‘She was enjoying my presence’
Mr Barrientos said during sex, he had given the complainant “love bites” to her neck, breasts and face.
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“My mouth on her skin while sucking. My teeth were involved to some extent,” he said.
Earlier, the court was shown graphic photographs of the woman with a series of inflamed bruising across her face, neck and breasts, some of which forensic dentist John Marsell said was likely caused by biting.
The complainant did not speak during the encounter, Mr Barrientos said, although she was “grunting and moaning in a good way” and did not say she was in discomfort or pain.
“It was amazing, I was enjoying it,” he said.
“She was enjoying it too.”
Yung Filly started out as a YouTube sensation and went on to establish a successful music career. (Facebook: Yung Filly)
Afterwards, he said the pair chatted on the bed, and her demeanour had been “good”.
“She’s got quite an amazing personality, bubbly,” he said.
“We were chatting. She was enjoying my presence.”
He said he then called an Uber for her and she left.
Yung Filly cross-examined
Under cross-examination by state prosecutor Danielle Clarke, the accused described how he had singled the young woman out in the nightclub crowd because she was attractive and had big breasts, and asked her if she wanted to come back to his hotel room with him.
This meant he wanted to have sex with her, he admitted, although he did not tell her this at the time.
Ms Clarke asked him about his popularity and number of social media followers.
Agreeing he was popular, he said “it humbled me because so many people would love to be in the position I’m in.”
“God blessed me to put me in that position.”
Mr Barrientos has told the court the complainant “was enjoying my presence”. (ABC News: David Weber)
He said the young woman had been staring at him throughout the night and was never far from his side as he mingled in the VIP area.
“I could just tell that she was into me,” he said.
Video footage shown to the court showed him holding the young woman’s hand as they left the club at one point, but he told the court he let it go when he realised people might be filming him.
“Being in the public eye, I want things online that suit me, things I can control,” he said, agreeing with Ms Clarke that it would not look good for him to be seen with her publicly.
Sexual assault support services:
Later in the car as they left the club together, Mr Barrientos said: “She was very … all over me”.
But shown pictures of the bruising and swelling on her body, he later admitted he had not sought her consent to bite her breasts, neck and face, and that in some places he had bitten her harder than others.
He said she did not try to make him stop.
“There was no ‘ow’, there was no ‘stop’, there was no you’re hurting me,” he said.
“I don’t recall breaking her skin, there was no blood anywhere at any point.”
Mr Barrientos said she had given him oral sex “out of her own free will”, and denied pulling her head towards his anus.
Mr Barrientos says it would not have looked good for him to be seen with the woman in public. (Facebook: Yung Filly)
He also denied slapping her repeatedly on the face and choking her to such an extent her breathing was restricted.
“It didn’t happen,” was his repeated response to Ms Clarke’s questioning of the assaults the 20-year-old said he inflicted on her.
Asked about what she called the obvious “power imbalance” when the complainant got into his car with a group of men she didn’t know and had her phone confiscated by Mr Barrientos’s security guard, the rapper said: “I don’t understand what power imbalance means.”
A second viewing room was established to accommodate an influx of people who had come to watch Mr Barrientos testify, including a large contingent of Yung Filly fans, many of them young men.
The trial continues.