Dr Olajide Olusesan Ogunseye second appeal against rape conviction turned down

A Queensland doctor, convicted of raping a patient during a pap smear, has appealed for a second time.

Queensland court rules on controversial rape conviction appeal. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

A former Fraser Coast doctor’s second attempt to overturn a conviction for raping a patient has been rejected by the state’s Court of Appeal.

Dr Olajide Olusesan Ogunseye was originally found guilty of the single count of rape by a Brisbane jury in 2020.

The court heard he had penetrated the woman with his finger and tried to kiss her during a pap smear at his Hervey Bay business in October, 2018.

On Friday, August 23, in the Brisbane District Court overseen by judges Justice Jean Dalton, Justice Melanie Hindman and Justice Lincoln Crowley, his second appeal attempt was heard.

The grounds for the appeal were that the original appeal only argued that the jury’s verdict was unreasonable based on the evidence.

At the August 23 hearing, Dr Ogunseye dropped this argument and was allowed to replace it with a new one.

The court heard at both hearings how the woman had recorded two conversations with Dr Ogunseye some days after he raped her, in which the prosecution said Dr Ogunseye had sounded “very apologetic”.

Dr Ogunseye’s lawyer argued on August 23 that there was a reasonable possibility that the complainant’s allegation, and the subsequent charge of rape, were born out of a misunderstanding.

Hervey Bay Dr Olajide Ogunseye. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

He claimed the failure to provide an Edwards-type direction (a warning about what level of guilt a jury might infer from a lie told by the accused) was a miscarriage of justice.

This was rejected by the court.

Judge Crowley said:

“In my view it cannot be said that there was a real chance that the trial judge’s failure to give an Edwards-type direction in respect of either the evidence of the statements made by the appellant, or his request that the complainant delete the recording she made on 9 October, affected the verdict.”

He then concluded that the appeal was dismissed.