Man found guilty of raping his daughter's teenage friend granted a retrial over SMS evidence A MAN found guilty of drugging and raping his daughter's 14-year-old friend has been granted a retrial. The man, who cannot be named, allegedly bought the girl alcohol, gave her a cannabis joint to smoke and then raped her as she slept. The teen, who was a close friend of the man's 14-year-old daughter, allegedly woke in shock and threatened to "slit his throat." After the girl then ran from the home and was allegedly chased by her friend who said her father was "really pissed and stoned and didn't mean it." A Supreme Court jury heard during a 2011 trial that a text was later sent from the man's phone apologising for the incident. His daughter said despite it appearing she had authored the message, it had come from her dad. The man denied writing the text. It read: "Dad is so f---ing sorry, he was stoned and pissed. He had no idea what he was doing and I know sorry doesn't cut it. But he really has a lot of respect for you and if knew it was you he would never have did it ... he love U as a daughter and he is sorry. The man was found guilty of one charge of rape and one charge of supplying a drug of dependence to a child. But in appealing the rape conviction lawyers for the man argued the Crown had relied on the text message as an admission of guilt. They argued the trial judge erred in failing to direct the jury about how they could use the evidence of the text message. The Court of Appeal agreed and this morning ordered a retrial on the rape conviction. In his written reasons Justice Phillip Priest said the jury needed specific direction about how to use the text message evidence. Given the text message was a major plank in the Crown case, in my opinion the judge needed to instruct the jury in emphatic terms that before they could use it in proof of his guilt the jury needed to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant was the author of the message. "He did not do so," he said. Moreover, the terms of the text message itself were far from an unequivocal admission of rape.