PERTH, Australia — Closing arguments were delivered Tuesday in the Western Australia trial of a British YouTuber and rapper who performs under the name Yung Filly, as the case moves toward a jury decision on charges that he raped and assaulted a fan after a music show two years ago.
The entertainer, whose legal name is Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, is 30 years old and has pleaded not guilty in the District Court of Western Australia to a total of ten charges — six counts of rape, three counts of assault causing bodily harm, and one count of choking. The alleged offenses took place in a Perth hotel room in September 2024.
Under Australian law, the alleged victim cannot be identified publicly. She was 20 years old at the time of the incident.
Jurors are expected to begin weighing the evidence Wednesday once both the defense and prosecution teams complete their closing remarks.
Taking the stand Monday, Barrientos denied slapping or choking the woman, though he acknowledged he bit her on multiple occasions.
“In England we would call it a love bite,” Barrientos told the court.
He also rejected the claim that the woman repeatedly asked him to stop and told him he was causing her pain.
“There was kissing in between; I would give her a love bite and then kiss her,” Barrientos said from the witness stand. “I don’t recall any blood.”
The court was shown photographs depicting the woman with bruising and bite marks visible on her face and neck.
According to testimony, Barrientos first encountered the woman at a Perth nightclub following his performance that evening.
“The vibes were good and she had a really good energy about her,” he said of their initial meeting.
Prosecutors have stated that while the woman initially agreed to have sex with Barrientos, she withdrew that consent once she began fearing for her personal safety.
Barrientos acknowledged during testimony that a security guard took the woman’s phone before she entered the hotel room, but he pushed back against prosecutor Danielle Clarke’s suggestion that this was done to prevent the woman from leaving or calling for help.
“It is standard practice for someone in the limelight to protect privacy,” he said in response.
The Colombian-born entertainer, who has amassed more than 1.8 million subscribers on YouTube, had been on an Australian tour that included stops in Sydney and Melbourne before the alleged incident occurred. He was in the east coast city of Brisbane — where the tour was scheduled to conclude — when authorities arrested him several days after the Perth incident.
