The judgment, which followed similar criticism from other judges<\/a> in sexual assault matters that never had any hope of conviction<\/a>, would later become the tipping point for a state-wide audit of all rape cases<\/a>. It would be intensely debated in state parliament, and circulated as gossip through the legal world.<\/p>\n Dozens of news stories would be written, along with opinion pieces on what appeared to be the failed state of rape prosecutions in the nation\u2019s largest jurisdiction. Men\u2019s rights activists who argue women lie about sexual \u00adassault would use her case as a weapon.<\/p>\n For Stileman, sitting alone on the park bench that day, only one thing rang through her mind. \u201cI really felt like something else had been taken from me,\u201d she told The Australian. \u201cI would not have progressed the matter if I had had any idea that the prospects of success in terms of a guilty verdict were so low.\u201d<\/p>\n Her comments come amid more than two years of turmoil within the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.<\/p>\n Judges, barristers, solicitors and defendants have slathered criticism on the ODPP, claiming that running meritless rape cases impedes on trust in the justice system, sees men \u201cfalsely accused\u201d of assault, and adds strain to already strained government funds. The ODPP and director Sally Dowling have always rejected this criticism.<\/p>\n For the first time, Stileman, a complainant, has publicly explained how being dragged through a trial that was apparently never likely to result in a conviction affected her.<\/p>\n She claims she repeatedly warned prosecutors she had no recollection of the incident and did not believe her testimony alone could secure a guilty conviction. She assumed they were sitting on a pile of evidence that would result in a favourable verdict but that pile never emerged.<\/p>\n \u201cIt does no service to complainants to take matters to trial that do not have prospects of success,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The alleged rape<\/p>\n The case centred on a meeting between Stileman and her alleged attacker, Paul Tyler, at a bar in Sydney\u2019s inner west on August 14, 2019. The pair at the time were just friends, she says, despite having met on Tinder a year prior and having had a handful of casual sexual encounters throughout their relationship.<\/p>\n Stileman has just returned from an overseas trip. She planned to meet with her boyfriend that night, but agreed to catch up with Tyler for a drink that afternoon at the Native Rose Hotel in Rozelle. When she arrived, he had ordered them a beer each and they chatted casually. They had a second round of drinks, and then a third.<\/p>\n Stileman doesn\u2019t remember anything after that until she woke up in Tyler\u2019s bed.<\/p>\n \u201cI was feeling extremely frightened, and in adrenaline overdrive \u2013 I just thought I had to get out immediately,\u201d she wrote in her police statement. <\/p>\n \u201cI had a racing heart and I remember leaving through the house and the front door, and that I left very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n The only other time she felt that frightened, she said, was when someone tried to kidnap her and her mother at gunpoint while travelling in Turkey.<\/p>\n Evidence adduced at trial showed she had had another two drinks, making five total. Two forensic pharmacologists explained the phenomenon of an alcoholic blackout \u2013 where seasoned drinkers can permanently lose their memory for periods while \u00adappearing to observers to be completely normal.<\/p>\n Stileman describes herself as the model complainant. After a teary phone call with her partner and an Uber to his house \u2013 during which she called a friend and told her what had happened \u2013 she visited the Royal Prince Alfred hospital. She told a triage nurse she was concerned she had been sexually assaulted and was sent to the specialist clinic. As she lay on her side on an examination table, a male doctor inspected and swabbed her genitals. He found two deep bruises. <\/p>\n \u201cWhile he was doing that, I looked at the ceiling and there was a sticker decoration which had 15 birds in a tree,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n She gave a blood and urine sample about 5.20am, about 14 hours after the two first met. <\/p>\n Alcohol was found in her system as well as sleeping medication, which she explained she had taken the night before the incident but could not recall taking the night of. <\/p>\n Male DNA was found on the vaginal swab. <\/p>\n Police case<\/p>\n Stileman provided a police statement nine days after, and another on September 11, 2019. Tyler was not charged until more than two years later on October 13, 2021. He was committed in June 2022, and faced court in February 2024 \u2013 more than four years after the incident.<\/p>\n Stileman says the process of the prosecution was worse than the process of going to hospital or making a police complainant.<\/p>\n She describes dealing with a witness assistance officer who she believes betrayed her confidence when passing information about therapy she had received on to police without her knowledge. She says when contacting witness support services to report this, she was forced to identify herself by Tyler\u2019s name so they knew who they were speaking with.<\/p>\n \u201cI know databases have their limits but this seems like a training issue to me,\u201d she wrote in an email to the officer in October 2021. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be classified by the name of the name of the person who assaulted me.\u201d<\/p>\n The officer escalated the matter to senior management and apologised for distress caused to Stileman. An ODPP spokesperson said the role of the witnesses assistance service was explained to complainants at the outset of proceedings, and the prosecution has a \u201cfundamental obligation to disclose to the defence all mat\u00aderial that is or may be relevant to the issues in the case\u201d.<\/p>\n Day in court<\/p>\n When it came time to give evidence in court, Stileman says the room she used for remote testimony was in the same building as the trial. She was scared to leave and get cutlery for her lunch in case she ran into Tyler.<\/p>\n It was under cross-examination that she heard his version of events \u2013 that she had \u201caggressively\u201d initiated oral sex. According to the costs judgment, Tyler testified Stileman had initiated intimacy. He said she appeared to be functioning normally, and the amount they drank was less than what was common for them.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an excruciating experience,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m not certain, I don\u2019t think it was ever put to me that I was just lying, because of my lack of memory. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was put to me that I had been mistaken, that I\u2019d engaged in a consensual interaction.\u201d<\/p>\n Stileman can\u2019t maintain that the incident wasn\u2019t a consensual encounter, because she has no memory of it. But, she says, based on information available to her \u2013 the bruises, the blackout, finding her underwear on backwards \u2013 it is the most plausible explanation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only person who will ever know that conclusively is the defendant,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Judge\u2019s criticism <\/p>\n In his judgment awarding Tyler legal costs, judge Peter Whitford launched a scathing critique of the ODPP for bringing \u201cmeritless\u201d rape accusations before the court, and urged judges not to \u201cremain silent\u201d on cases with no reasonable prospects of a conviction.<\/p>\n A few months before, judge Robert Newlinds had blasted \u201clazy and perhaps politically expedient\u201d referrals of unverifiable rape allegations. Judge Penelope Wass, judge Gordon Lerve and acting judge Paul Conlon had made similar criticisms.<\/p>\n The NSW Judicial Commission later partially upheld a complaint filed by Ms Dowling against Judge Whitford, finding it was \u201centirely inappropriate\u201d for him to suggest there was an \u201copaque, even secret, policy\u201d that overrode prosecutorial guidelines in the state. <\/p>\n Judge Newlinds was temporarily removed from criminal trials after his comments.<\/p>\n Judge Whitford, in his judgment, said the version of events Stileman gave to police remained consistent throughout the trial process. However, he found that after she had given her testimony, the crown had no further evidence that she had not consented to intercourse with Tyler.<\/p>\n Stileman says she repeatedly warned prosecutors prior to trial that there was not enough evidence to secure a conviction. \u201cThe case was going to run on consent because there was the DNA evidence that proved sexual contact. I, to the best of my recollection, said to them \u2018But I don\u2019t remember anything\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI always thought \u2018Well, it\u2019s been certified. There must be stuff there. There must be enough there.\u2019 I assumed there must be evidence or supporting material or something that I was not aware of to mean that the DPP had signed off on prospects.\u201d<\/p>\n One case of many<\/p>\n The matter landed in NSW parliament in March 2024.<\/p>\n During a budget estimates session, Ms Dowling announced senior prosecutors would audit every sexual assault matter committed for trial in NSW as a way to \u201csatisfy myself that there wasn\u2019t a problem\u201d. <\/p>\n The results found 11 of 327 rape cases committed did not adhere to prosecution guidelines, although Ms Dowling maintained many of the discontinued cases would have been dropped during the regular trial process.<\/p>\n Stileman makes no criticism of Judge Whitford or the jury in the matter. <\/p>\n She simply wants people to know the ODPP is not \u201cbrave\u201d for taking matters to trial that should not be. \u201cThe narrative has become far too simplistic that it\u2019s about being misunderstood, or that the DPP is being brave in some way by taking matters to trial that should not go to trial. That is not bravery. That is a squandering of public resources and just being cavalier with \u00adpeople\u2019s hopes,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I had my time over, I would make a sexual assault reporting option report, which is the anonymous online report. I would not participate in a prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n An ODPP spokesperson said Stileman did not indicate she wanted to discontinue the prosecution midway through. \u201cThe ODPP takes its obligation to consult with complainants very seriously. Where a complainant indicates they do not wish to proceed, their views will be considered and may support a discretionary decision to discontinue the prosecution,\u201d they said. \u201cWhile the ODPP cannot comment on confidential communications in a particular matter, we can confirm this was not a case in which those considerations arose.\u201d<\/p>\n The spokesperson noted the audit found \u201cvery high levels of compliance with the Prosecution Guidelines with no systemic \u00adissues identified\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cThe review identified opportunities for further improvement, including further training on complex evidentiary issues such as memory, intoxication and consent, particularly in cases where a complainant\u2019s recollection is limited or fragmented (as in R v Smith (pseudonym)),\u201d they said. \u201cIncreased training and additional resources have been provided on these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n Stileman and Tyler\u2019s names have been anonymised.<\/p>\n Ellie Dudley is The Australian\u2019s national chief of staff, having previously been legal affairs correspondent covering courts, justice and changes to the legal profession. She edited The Australian\u2019s weekly legal newsletter, Ipso Facto, and won Young Journalist of the Year in 2024 at both the Kennedy Awards and the News Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tina Stileman was sitting on a park bench near her home when she read a legal judgment that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[28726,28738,28717,28734,297,28725,22,23,133,21,28697,28739,28693,28694,28704,28702,28722,13150,28715,25231,28714,28712,355,28719,28700,28708,120,28711,28709,28721,28706,28692,11106,28732,25716,28695,28713,28716,28718,28737,28728,28735,28729,28707,21496,28730,28731,28699,1712,28705,28736,28696,28691,28727,247,28733,28720,28723,296,28724,282,28710,28698,28701,28703],"class_list":["post-31082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-adrenaline-overdrive","tag-alcoholic-blackout","tag-alfred","tag-already-strained-government-funds","tag-asia","tag-assault-reporting-option","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-austrlia","tag-budget-estimates-session","tag-consensual-interaction","tag-costs-judgment","tag-criminal-trials","tag-examination-table","tag-fundamental-obligation","tag-gordon-lerve","tag-inner-west","tag-judge-penelope-wass","tag-justice-system","tag-male-doctor","tag-meritless-rape-cases","tag-new-south-wales","tag-news-stories","tag-nsw-judicial-commission","tag-nsw-office-of-the-director","tag-oceania","tag-opinion-pieces","tag-oral-sex","tag-park-bench","tag-paul-conlon","tag-peter-whitford","tag-plausible-explanation","tag-police-complainant","tag-police-statement","tag-prosecution-guidelines","tag-rape-cases","tag-rape-complainant","tag-rape-prosecutions","tag-rape-trials","tag-regular-trial-process","tag-remote-testimony","tag-rights-activists","tag-robert-newlinds","tag-rozelle","tag-sally-dowling","tag-senior-management","tag-senior-prosecutors","tag-sexual-assault","tag-sexual-assault-matters","tag-sexual-assault-reporting","tag-specialist-clinic","tag-sticker-decoration","tag-supporting-material","tag-sydney","tag-tipping-point","tag-triage-nurse","tag-trial-process","tag-turkey","tag-unverifiable-rape-allegations","tag-western-asia","tag-witness-assistance-officer","tag-witness-support-services","tag-witnesses-assistance-service","tag-women-lie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ellie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ddd73bf4-f38f-4652-a213-58b14597ce8b.png\")
<\/a>Ellie Dudley<\/a>National Chief of Staff <\/p>\n