A former ACT public servant who fled to Pakistan midway through his first trial has been found guilty of three sexual offences, including rape.
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Haider Ali, 38, faced four charges in 2017 - one count of sexual intercourse without consent, and three acts of indecency.
On the day he was due to take the stand and give evidence in his trial, he boarded a flight to Dubai before he travelled on to Pakistan.
After two years on the run, he was extradited from the United Kingdom back to Australia in October 2019, and refused bail in the ACT Magistrates Court last November.
His defence barrister, Richard Thomas, told the court Ali had returned to Pakistan during the trial because his father had been critically ill and later died.
But he conceded there was no question Ali made the wrong choice to leave in the middle of the trial.
In Ali's absence, the 2017 jury acquitted him of one act of indecency, but they could not agree on a verdict for the other three charges.
Ali has pleaded guilty to one count of failing to appear in court.
His second trial started last Tuesday, with the court hearing the charges stemmed from a run-in with Ali's former colleague on October 9, 2016.
The colleague gave evidence she met up with Ali at Mooseheads while on a night out in Canberra city, and she and a friend later agreed that he could share their Uber to be dropped off at his friend's house.
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The woman said her friend told Ali he should sleep on the couch at her Spence house, but later that morning she woke to Ali "with his tongue down [her] throat" in a spare bedroom.
She said he squeezed her breast despite her protests, digitally penetrated her, and tried to pull her pants down before she spoke to a friend over the phone and left the house soon after.
"I just kept saying 'no', he kept saying 'no one needs to know'," the woman told police.
"I just panicked and I had to get out of there."
Ali denied the two acts of indecency and the count of rape.
In Mr Thomas' opening remarks, he told the jury: "In short, Mr Ali's evidence is that nothing happened."
"One might think about the level of intoxication, as to whether anything could have happened," Mr Thomas said.
On Monday, the jury found Ali guilty of all three charges.
Justice David Mossop said he would direct that the court registrar list Ali for sentencing in the coming months.