John Jarratt is angry. “I’d have to be inhuman not to be,” says the 67-year-old actor, who was found not guilty in July of the charge of rape brought against him by a former housemate with whom he claims to have had consensual sex 43 years ago.

“I’m not seething,” he says, his voice never rising much above a whisper in the 45 minutes we chat. “I’m angry because I don’t like what they’ve done. But you keep your civility, you keep your dignity. I don’t think you get results by being a prick. But I’ll be assertive.”

John Jarratt has written a book outlining his side of the story regarding the accusation of rape levelled against him in November 2017. Credit:Simon Schluter

That he most certainly is in Assault by Media. This slim volume charts the nightmare that began one Friday in November 2017, when his agent called him with the news that Sydney’s Daily Telegraph was running the next day a story claiming he had raped a woman in October 1975.

His book is, as you might expect, entirely one-sided. He refers to his accuser – whose name remains suppressed by the courts –as The Female. He calls her charges fabrications and lies. He wants changes to the legal system, and says he’s going to take his case all the way to Canberra if need be.