Gavin Gao Found Not Guilty of Rape
On March 19th, after a two-year legal battle, Chinese actor Gao Yunxiang (高云翔), also known as Gavin Gao, has been found not guilty of raping a woman in a Sydney hotel room back in March 2018. The second defendant, Chinese film producer Wang Jing (王晶), was also found not guilty.
Both Gao and Wang were arrested in March 2018 after a woman accused the two men of sexual assault in a Sydney hotel. After over a year of trials, the judge dissolved the jury after failing to reach an unanimous verdict. Retrials and a new jury was ordered on December 2019, with the first retrial held on February 24, 2020.
Gao was accused of seven counts of rape, indecent assault, and depriving the victim of her rights, among others. Wang Jing was accused of eleven counts, including aggravated sexual assault in company.
It took only one day for the new jury to deliberate in finding them not guilty of sexual assault.
When the judge announced their acquittal of all counts, Gao clasped his hands together and Wang bursted into tears. They bowed to the jury.
Wang immediately called his parents to deliver the good news after the trial. Gao shook his head and declined to answer press questions when he left the New South Wales district court building. He then yelled out “Bulls***!” to the sky.
Both Gao and Wang have been holding criminal justice visas so they could lawfully remain in Australia for their trials. Gao and Wang are now free to return to mainland China, but they would have to be put in a mandatory 14-day quarantine upon their return.
Gao made his debut as an actor in 2002 and has starred in many popular Chinese television dramas, including Palace 3: The Lost Daughter <宫锁连城>, The Legend of Mi Yue <芈月传>, and more recently The Legend of Ba Qing <巴清传奇> alongside Fan Bingbing (范冰冰). However, all scenes of Gao were replaced by Li Chen (李晨) after his arrest.
He was also married to actress Michelle Dong Xuan (董璇) for eight years, and they have one daughter. The couple divorced in March 2019.
Though Dong has not given an official response in regard to Gao’s release, she allegedly told a source that she felt more sorrowful than happy.
Source: On.cc
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
Well paid, Gav!
there are always rumors about male celebrities sleeping around. i wouldn’t be surprised that most of them do. he’s very unlucky to have gotten caught and locked up for two years.
@m0m0 Sad but true….
What? Both not guilty? Hummm….Not sure what to think of that.
@wm2017 well, I’m not sure if the virus affect this or not. But just before this news, Australia have suspended their judges/court system, so any case that gonna be a lengthy one and not much concrete proof, they end it quickly. I suspected it was the case for this one, could be wrong but that’s my guess
@littlefish OMG, that’s so sad if that’s the truth. I mean didn’t they have video evidence of them having sex w/the female a while back? Damn, they certainly got lucky if that was the case.
@littlefish I highly doubt that.
Prosecution always have a hard time to convict. Does it mean he is guilty? I don’t know. But since not guilty, this man should have the benefit of the doubt and be given back his career. If he feels he is not guilty, by all means sue the girl, the police. But civil suit is always lower standard so he may lose.