A jury returned the verdict in under an hour on Friday in the four-day trial involving Chad Graham Hart.
Mr Hart 39, also had a charge of indecent assault thrown out from the events that took place at the Gold Bar in Kalgoorlie in September of 2020.
Defence lawyer Brendon Slattery successfully argued his client had not penetrated one of the adult entertainers, who at one stage was straddling Mr Hart naked and lighting cream on fire between her belly button and pubic area.
The court heard Mr Hart may have accidentally touched the woman’s vagina in fear of the fire spreading to his own crotch – having previously had his clothed crotch covered in cream and set on fire by another entertainer.Mr Slattery said his client walked into the buck’s party with an open mind, but certainly didn’t expect to be ‘humiliated, abused, his own genitals lit on fire and thumped’, according to The West.
During the incident packed evening at the Gold Bar, the court heard Mr Hart was straddled by numerous naked women, ‘bounced up and down on’ and was front and centre for antics involving ‘a b***-job trick, a candy in the butt trick…and a condom trick’.
Mr Slattery added this was ‘unusual behaviour’ for a licensed premises.
Defence witnesses confirmed Mr Hart was seen ‘swatting out flames’, with Mr Slattery stating any contact with the victim’s vagina was accidental.
State prosecutor Alan Dungey rejected that theory, revealing in his closing statement video footage which he alleged showed Mr Hart’s hand touching the woman’s bare vagina – with the flame ‘some distance’ away.
‘Mr Hart’s genitals are not exposed, they are covered by the skirt he is wearing, and by (the woman) who is sitting on top,’ he said. So the notion that his hand might have stretched out to protect himself as a kind of automatic instinctive response just doesn’t arise on the evidence.’
Mr Dungey felt the penetration was an ‘opportunistic act’ done in the ‘heat of the moment’ and was ‘not accidental,’ the court heard.
‘There are lots of witnesses. There is a security guard present. It’s an extraordinarily reckless, ballsy, thing to do in that company,’ he said.
Subsequent footage from the Gold Bar showed the woman punch Mr Hart, with Mr Dungey telling the court she clearly felt violated.