A jury has been discharged after failing to reach a verdict over historical rape charges against Sydney hairdresser Emilio D'Aguanno.
Despite deliberating for 21 hours and 50 minutes, the jury remained undecided whether D'Aguanno sexually assaulted three teenage clients on separate occasions between 1977 and 1991.
The 79-year-old's bail conditions were continued without change at a brief hearing in Downing Centre District Court on Wednesday.
During the trial D'Aguanno's defence barrister said the hairdresser did have an active sex life, including occasionally with clients, but the acts were always consensual.
D'Aguanno was charged with one count of rape and three counts of sexual intercourse without consent. He also faces an alternative count of unlawfully and carnally knowing a 15-year-old girl.
Crown prosecutors allege he raped an 18-year-old between 1977 and 1979 and the 15-year-old in 1984 at a studio above his Rose Bay salon.
D'Aguanno denied claims he sexually assaulted the 15 year old, saying while he did sleep with her, she wanted to and that this did not occur until after her 16th birthday.
He is also accused of raping a third woman, aged 17 or 18, at his apartment in Rushcutters Bay sometime in 1989 and 1991.
D'Aguanno migrated to Australia from Italy in 1969 and opened his own hairdressing studio, named Emilio, first in the affluent Sydney suburb of Rose Bay and then in the historic Queen Victoria Building.
The first report was made to police in 2018, leading to D'Aguanno's arrest in May 2020. Media coverage of the charges led to the other two women coming forward.
The matter is due to return to court on June 23, when D'Aguanno is excused from attending.
