An ex-constable who installed a GPS tracking device on a woman's car and shattered her phone's screen after someone "pecked" her did not rape or assault her, a jury has found.
Joshua Alan James Wootton was found not guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent and one count of common assault by jurors on Friday after a trial in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court.
Prosecutors failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the 33-year-old raped the complainant in July 2014 and again in December 2017 and that he assaulted her some time between September and December 2018.
In January, he pleaded guilty to recklessly damaging property, stalking with intent to cause physical or mental harm, and using a tracking device to see the victim's location without her consent.
These offences involve the same woman as the claimed rapes and assaults but she cannot be legally named.
According to agreed facts filed with the court, Wootton destroyed the woman's mobile in September 2015.
Confronting her after viewing the "Find My Friends" app and seeing that the vehicle she was in had pulled over on the roadside on the way home, she admitted that her friend had "pecked" her on the lips.
After the victim told him it was "nothing more" than a peck, he became angry and snatched the phone out of her hands.
"He squeezed the phone in his hand so hard that the screen broke and shattered," the agreed facts say.
Wootton also stalked the woman in February 2019 by appearing at a jewellery store where she worked with her partner.
"As (the victim and her partner) were driving out of the car park they saw the offender standing nearby and peering over a fence, looking toward the jewellery store."
The ex-officer also installed a GPS tracking device on the woman's car from January to December 2019 without her knowledge.
In June, he had separate charges dismissed despite pleading guilty to stalking another woman and using a restricted database to track her partner.
He followed his victim over 11 days in February 2022, leaving flowers on her driveway and using a GoGet hire car to conceal himself around her home, workplace and elsewhere.
Magistrate Miranda Moody ordered Wootton to comply with a mental health treatment plan after finding he had depression since becoming separated from his ex-wife after revelations she had been having an affair.
She warned Wootton that the judgment didn't absolve him of his actions and slapped an apprehended violence order on him, preventing him from contacting the victim or coming near her.
Wootton, who resides in Oran Park in Sydney's southwest, became a serving police officer in December 2019 and was based in the city's eastern suburbs.
He was stood down from his role in June 2023 and will be sentenced in May.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
