Prosecutors to retry Yung Filly on three deadlocked rape counts

Prosecutors in Western Australia will retry the British-Colombian rapper and YouTuber known as Yung Filly on three counts of sexual penetration without consent, the charges a Perth jury could not agree on after an eight-day trial that ended on July 31.

The decision was set out at a District Court hearing in Perth on Aug. 21. According to the Associated Press, Judge Linda Black, who presided over the first trial, told lawyers on both sides to consider whether a different judge should hear the retrial, and whether it should go before a jury or a judge sitting alone. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which also covered the hearing, reported that the jury-or-judge question was not discussed.

Barrientos, whose full name is Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, faced 10 charges and pleaded not guilty to all of them. The jury convicted him of two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm, acquitted him of five other counts, and failed to reach verdicts on the three that prosecutors now intend to try again.

The counts that stand

The two convictions relate to bites to the woman's cheek, neck and breast, the District Court heard. The same jury cleared Barrientos of a third count of assault occasioning bodily harm, over an alleged slap, and of a count of impeding her normal breathing by applying pressure to her neck. It also acquitted him of three counts of sexual penetration without consent, leaving only the three deadlocked counts open.

During the trial Barrientos testified that he did not hit the woman or hold her by the throat. He admitted giving her what he called "love bites", and said he believed the sexual acts were consensual. He told the court he had "fancied" the woman when the two met.

The woman, who was 20 at the time and has legal anonymity, told the court she had consensual sex with Barrientos after a night at Bar1, a nightclub at Hillarys Boat Harbour in Perth's northern suburbs. She said the encounter at a hotel in the city's central district later became non-consensual, when the rapper did things she did not want.

Prosecutors argued the woman initially consented to sex but withdrew that consent because she feared for her safety. The allegations concern a hotel room in Perth's central business district in September 2024, while Barrientos was midway through a tour of Australia that had begun on the east coast.

He will not be sentenced on the two assault convictions until after the retrial has concluded.

How the tour ended

Barrientos had been performing across Australia when he met the woman in Perth. He had already appeared in Sydney and Melbourne before the encounter, and was arrested in October 2024 in Brisbane, the east coast city where the tour was due to finish. He has been free on bail since he was charged.

Yung Filly built his following on his own YouTube channel, started in 2013, and is a frequent collaborator with Beta Squad, the British YouTube collective. He has also presented for the BBC. His broadcast credits include Hot Property and Munya and Filly Get Chilly, both on BBC Three, the second made with the comedian Munya Chawawa.

He said nothing to reporters as he left the court on Friday.

A second charge on bail

Barrientos faces a separate charge of possessing a prohibited drug, over cannabis he is alleged to have been found with on May 20 while released on bail, Australian Associated Press reported. That charge is to be heard at Mandurah Magistrates' Court, near Perth, on September 1, on a different track from the sexual assault case.

When he was charged in October 2024 his bail was set at a personal undertaking of AU$100,000, with a surety of the same amount. He was permitted to return to Britain for several months. An application to change his bail conditions is expected to be heard on August 27, GB News reported.

Prosecutor Danielle Clarke told the court the complainant was more than willing to give evidence again at a retrial.

The case is listed for mention at the District Court on September 25 to set a date for the retrial, GB News reported. The Associated Press reported that no date has yet been fixed.

In a judge-alone trial the presiding judge decides the verdict instead of a jury. Under the state's Criminal Procedure Act either side may apply for one, but it takes a court order: the judge must find it is in the interests of justice, and where the prosecution applies, the accused has to consent.

The jury needed a majority of at least 10 of its 12 members to return a verdict, and could not reach one on the three counts, the Associated Press reported.

What comes next

Three hearings are expected before any retrial: the bail application on August 27, the cannabis matter at Mandurah Magistrates' Court on September 1 and a District Court mention on September 25. The ABC reported only that Barrientos would be back in court next week.

The charges in Perth

Barrientos, 31, remains free on bail while facing a second trial on three counts of sexual penetration without consent. A Perth jury convicted him on July 31 of two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm and acquitted him of five other counts, among them three of the sexual offences with which he had been charged.

The three counts headed for retrial are the ones on which jurors could reach neither a conviction nor an acquittal, a deadlock that leaves the allegations unresolved. Because no verdict was returned, there is no bar to a second trial, and the state may put those counts to a new jury in the same court, which is the course prosecutors have now chosen.

The woman retains legal anonymity under Australian law, and her identity cannot be reported. Barrientos denied every charge at the original trial, and testified that he believed his contact with her was consensual.

Key dates in the case

The hearings expected after the August 21 decision fall in Perth and the nearby town of Mandurah over the coming weeks.

Sentencing on the two assault convictions is deferred until the retrial is over, the District Court heard. That leaves Barrientos convicted but not yet sentenced on those counts, while he faces fresh proceedings on the most serious allegations against him.

The matter sits in the District Court of Western Australia, the state's intermediate court, which hears most serious criminal trials. Murder and manslaughter go to the Supreme Court.

Away from his music, Barrientos drew much of his audience through online comedy before moving into television presenting in Britain. The 2024 dates were his first tour of Australia.

No date has been set for the retrial, and the choice between a jury and a judge alone has not been made. Both are expected to be addressed when the case next returns to the District Court.