A former Socceroo has been found not guiltyof sexually assaulting a woman at his Western Sydney apartment in 2018.
Ruon Tongyik, 28, appeared in the Downing Centre District Court on Thursday with his co-accused and school friend, Mardochee Manirakiza, often known as “Dosh”.
A jury who sat in the trial for over two weeks, found Mr Tongyik not guilty on the two counts of sexual intercourse without consent.
They also found Mr Manirakiza not guilty on the two counts of sexual intercourse without consent against him.
Prosecutors alleged during the trial that Mr Tongyik and Mr Manirakiza sexually assaulted a woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, knowingly having non-consensual intercourse with her at Mount Druitt in Sydney’s west in November 2018.
Both men had pleaded not guilty.
Mr Tongyik was charged in August 2023, and his co-accused Mr Manirakiza was charged in March 2024.
The jury was told during the trial, before Justice Lara Gallagher, by both the defence and prosecution, that it was not in dispute that the woman had visited Mr Tongyik on the night in question, but what was in dispute is what happened inside.
In November 2018, the woman met Mr Tongyik at his Mt Druitt unit, where they had some drinks, before Mr Manirakiza arrived, and the three began playing a game of truth or dare.
The crown then alleged the woman blacked out and when she came to the two accused men were allegedly sexually assaulting her.
However, the jury rejected this version of events, and determined Mr Tongyik’s version of events, that the pair had consensual sex, was the truth.
Mr Tongyik was deselected from the Olympic squad in July 2021 under no-fault stand down policy after the woman’s allegations were aired.
The court was told following the footballer’s deselection, the woman had forwarded screenshots of the news to her friend with the message: “lol getting replaced in the Olympic squad.”
She was also alleged to have gone on a “Twitter rampage”, posting her allegations on social media.
“She expressed pleasure in his deselection, she wanted her followers to know her involvement in his deselection,” Defence Barrister Georgia Huxley said in her closing submissions.
Ms Huxley told the court the woman had said she didn’t report her allegations to police because she “didn’t she think she would be believed”, but that seeing Mr Tongyik’s success brought back feelings of “rejection” and “frustration”.
Justice Gallagher reminded the jury before their deliberation that “the onus rests on the crown to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt”.
The Western Sydney Wanderers previously said Mr Tongyik had been stood down from the club on a no-fault interim suspension in light of the court proceedings.
He was signed with the club back in 2018, however left due to injury before resigning in 2022.
He also made two appearances with the Socceroos in 2021 during their bid for World Cup qualification.