Factual. Independent. Impartial.
Support AAP with a free or paid subscription
Entertainment
Aaron Bunch

UK rapper accused of raping Aussie fan to face retrial

British rapper Yung Filly has pleaded not guilty to raping a fan after a Perth concert. (Aaron Bunch/AAP PHOTOS)

A British musician and media personality accused of violently raping a fan in a hotel will be retried after a jury was unable to reach a verdict on three charges.

Rapper Yung Filly, who is legally known as Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, faced trial in July over his 2024 encounter with a 20-year-old woman after a Perth nightclub gig.

The 31-year-old was found guilty of two assault offences and acquitted of three sexual penetration charges following an eight-day trial in the West Australian District Court.

British musician and media personality Yung Filly will be retried on sexual assault charges. (Aaron Bunch/AAP VIDEO)

Not guilty verdicts were also returned for one charge of impeding the woman's breathing by applying pressure to her neck and one count of assault occasioning bodily harm.

The jury was hung on three other sexual penetration counts.

Barrientos returned to court on Friday, where prosecutor Danielle Clarke said the influencer would be retried for the three charges.

 No date has been set for the retrial, and the performer remains on bail.

The case will return to the same court next week for a bail variance hearing.

Judge Linda Black asked the opposing legal teams to consider whether they want a new judge to hear the retrial and whether the proceedings should be heard by a jury or a judge alone.

Yung Filly
Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, better known as Yung Filly, faced a trial in July. (Richard Wainwright/AAP PHOTOS)

Ms Clarke said the complainant in the case was willing to give her evidence again.

Barrientos's trial heard that he was on his first tour of Australia when he met the woman in a nightclub VIP area.

Prosecutors alleged the performer got aggressive during consensual intercourse.

It was at this point that prosecutors said consensual sex stopped, triggering the six counts of sexual penetration without consent.

The assaults the musician was convicted of stem from Barrientos biting the woman's face and neck.

He called them love bites and said they involved sucking and tongue movements, and his teeth came into contact with the woman's skin.

The trial has halted the career of the Colombia-born South London singer and comedian.

As Yung Filly, he has featured in the BBC's celebrity version of Bake Off and presented light entertainment programs including dating show Hot Property.

Those appearances helped grow a large following across TikTok (three million followers), YouTube (1.8 million subscribers) and Spotify (850,000 monthly listeners).

License this article

Sign up to read this article for free
Choose between a free or paid subscription to AAP News
Start reading
Already a member? Sign in here
Top stories on AAP right now