Former NSW MP Rory Amon Faces Retrial Over Sexual Abuse Allegations

Former New South Wales MP Rory Amon faces a retrial over allegations he sexually abused a 13-year-old boy in a car park toilet in 2017, smh.com.au reported on November 9, 2026.

The 37-year-old pleaded not guilty to sexual intercourse with and indecently assaulting the child at a northern beaches unit block in 2017, when Amon was 27 and working as a local government politician, according to smh.com.au.

The NSW Supreme Court retrial began on Monday following an earlier trial this year where the jury acquitted Amon on a string of other sexual offences against the same complainant but failed to agree on verdicts for the two charges now being retried.

Crown prosecutor Andrew McMaster told the 12-person jury that Amon and the then-13-year-old connected on an adult hook-up site, with the complainant seeking connection and feeling insecure at the time. The court heard the pair moved their communications to Snapchat, where they exchanged messages and explicit photos.

The complainant told his parents he was going for a run before meeting Amon outside their apartment block, walking through a communal courtyard to a downstairs carpark toilet, smh.com.au reported. The Crown alleges the pair kissed before Amon placed the complainant’s hand on his own penis through his tracksuit pants, then pulled down his own pants and underwear to cause the teenager to perform oral sex.

The jury heard the boy later told various people about the incident, including a teacher who made a mandatory report to police. The complainant learned Amon’s identity in 2020 or 2021 after seeing a photo online, having previously known him only by his Snapchat name, before making a formal report as an 18-year-old in 2022 that led to Amon’s arrest in 2024.

Defense barrister Matthew Johnston, SC, told the jury in his opening address that the central issue to determine is whether Amon honestly and reasonably believed the complainant was over the age of consent of 16. Johnston stated that the complainant lied about his age to register for the adult hook-up site and that Snapchat messages could not be tendered into evidence due to their self-deleting function.

If the accused had a reasonable and honest belief the teenager was at least 16, then that is an innocent state of mind, Johnston said, adding that the defense accepted the pair engaged in sexual activity in the carpark toilet but maintained the boy never informed Amon of his true age.

The trial continues before Justice Desmond Fagan, with the jury hearing the complainant’s recorded testimony from the first trial in a closed court session.