Aldinga Beach man accused of raping and following 12-year-old girl appears in court for first time

A man accused of raping a 12-year-old girl on a southern suburbs train in broad daylight has appeared in court for the first time.

A southern suburbs man accused of the daylight rape of a 12-year-old girl on a train and following her off the train has appeared in court for the first time – and asked his identity be suppressed.

The 21-year-old Aldinga Beach man appeared in the Christies Beach Magistrates Court via video link from custody on Monday after his arrest for the Thursday, January 11, incident.

The alleged victim was travelling on the Seaford line when police say she was “randomly” assaulted around 5pm and followed her off the train at the Marion station.

At the time of his arrest, police said the alleged rape occurred on the train between Christie Downs and Park Holme.

He is yet to enter pleas to charges of indecent assault, engage in sexual intercourse with a person without consent and have sexual intercourse with a person under 14 years.

The alleged assault was captured on CCTV and the court heard “facial recognition technology” was used to identify both the accused and alleged victim.

Another prosecutor told the court she was “satisfied that the CCTV evidence, together with the electronic evidence linking MetroCARD use together with clothing seized from the defendant’s house” linked him to the alleged crime.

The court heard the man had used the same MetroCARD to catch another train and that when the man was arrested, police found a bag and clothing that matched what the attacker wore at the time of the incident.

The court heard that, despite being in a state of “severe shock” the alleged victim had given “clear evidence” of what had occurred during an interview with police.

Andrew Williams, for the man, said the identity of the alleged attacker was an issue and asked the court to suppress his client’s identity to prevent any prejudice to a future trial.

He said facial recognition was “not evidence” and that “somebody has to identify my client”.

“If it’s CCTV somebody has to identify him from that,” he said.

He also told the court his client intended to apply for home detention bail and asked the court to order a home detention report.

Magistrate Briony Kennewell suppressed the man’s identity for a week. It will be reviewed next week when the man returns to continue his application for release on bail.

The man will then return to court in August for a charge determination to be made.