British social media celebrity and rapper Yung Filly will be retried on three charges that allege he raped a fan in Australia following a music performance two years ago. The 30-year-old entertainer, whose real name is Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, learned on Friday that prosecutors intend to try him for a second time on the charges. The legal apparatus keeps grinding. The woman at the center of it cannot be identified, while the man with the public profile has already spent months moving through bail, courtrooms, and headlines.
Barrientos underwent an eight-day trial for the same alleged attack last month in the District Court of Western Australia state in Perth. A jury found him guilty on two charges that he had assaulted the woman, then aged 20, occasioning bodily harm in a Perth hotel room in September 2024. The jury also found him not guilty of choking her and not guilty of three of six charges of rape. It could not reach majority verdicts of at least 10 out of 12 jurors on the remaining three rape charges. The state got part of what it wanted. The rest stays in the pipeline.
Who Has the Power
Prosecutor Danielle Clarke told Judge Linda Black that the alleged victim, who cannot be identified, was willing to testify again at a retrial. Black, who was the original trial judge, told defense and prosecution lawyers on Friday to consider whether they want a new judge to hear the retrial and whether the proceedings should be heard by a jury or by a judge alone. That’s the machinery deciding how the next round will run. The people with the least power in the room are still being asked to keep showing up, while lawyers and judges sort out the format.
Barrientos has been free on bail since he was charged and was allowed to return to Britain for several months. He said nothing to reporters as he left the court on Friday. Prosecutors alleged the woman initially agreed to have sex but withdrew her consent because she feared for her safety. That allegation sits at the center of the case, and the court will drag it back into view again when the retrial begins. No date for the trial has been set.
Who Pays for the Process
The Colombian-born entertainer will be sentenced for the assault convictions after his retrial. That means the assault findings already stand, even as the rape charges head back into another round of state procedure. Barrientos had been touring Australia and had already performed in Sydney and Melbourne before he encountered his victim in Perth. He was arrested several days later in the east coast city of Brisbane, where the tour was to end. The tour moved city to city. So did the state response.
The retrial will revisit charges that a jury could not settle last month. The same court system that produced partial verdicts now prepares to do it again, with the possibility of a new judge and either a jury or judge-alone proceedings. The alleged victim has said she is willing to testify again, according to Danielle Clarke. That willingness matters because the system has already shown how much it can demand from one person while the public figure at the center of the case remains free on bail.
Barrientos learned on Friday that prosecutors intend to try him for a second time. He left the court without speaking. The case stays open, the charges stay alive, and the court keeps its grip on everyone caught inside it.
What the Court Already Decided
The jury’s mixed verdicts left two assault convictions in place, along with acquittals on choking and three rape charges. It could not reach majority verdicts on the remaining three rape charges. Judge Linda Black told the lawyers to consider whether the retrial should use a new judge and whether a jury should hear it at all. No date for the trial has been set. For now, the state’s answer to uncertainty is simple: try again.