Clay Benjamin Hall trial begins for alleged rape in Queensland

A man is on trial for allegedly raping a teenage girl he met while she was walking home from a house party in a Queensland country town.

Warning: This article contains details of alleged sexual assault some readers may find distressing.

Clay Benjamin Hall pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape at the beginning of his trial in Warwick District Court today.

The court was told Mr Hall met the girl, who was in her late teens at the time, on a street in Warwick, about 160 kilometres west of Brisbane, and allegedly raped her after she offered to show him a shortcut to the local showgrounds in the early hours of October 31, 2021.

Crown prosecutor Samantha O'Rourke told a jury of six women and six men that the girl had been at a house party earlier that night.

"As she walked home in the early hours of the following morning, alone and vulnerable, she was raped by a man who was a stranger to her," Ms O'Rourke said in her opening statement.

Hall described as 'cowboy'

Ms O'Rourke told the court Mr Hall and the girl talked briefly before he introduced himself and told her he was in town for the rodeo.

"She describes him as a cowboy," Ms O'Rourke said.

The jury heard that Mr Hall explained that he was trying to get to the local showgrounds and the girl offered to show him a shortcut.

Ms O'Rourke said Mr Hall sexually propositioned the girl before allegedly raping her against a tree both vaginally and anally.

She said the girl later called her boxing instructor, who took her to the Warwick Base Hospital, where the police were called.

Defence barrister David Jones KC said it was not contested that Mr Hall had sex with the girl.

"The issue is consent," Mr Jones said.

Mr Jones told the jury to pay attention to the way the girl presented to police and said a "potential issue" was that she had been at a house party earlier in the night with people she did not know who were giving her drinks.

Mr Jones told the jury to consider whether it was possible the complainant was impacted by alcohol or "whether there was something else on her mind beyond liquor that makes it unreliable as to what occurred".

He said the girl had told her boxing instructor on the phone that she had found herself in a "bad situation" at the house party.

The trial before Justice Philip McCarthy KC is expected to continue tomorrow.