Gympie woman says ‘no truth’ to claims of alleged sex crimes against girl

A woman accused of raping and indecently treating a young girl who was a friend of her family a decade ago has staunchly denied the claims in court

The woman at the centre of historical sex abuse allegations against a young girl spent more than two hours on the stand denying the claims amid revelations the complainant had also levelled a rape charge against another member of the family.

A woman accused of raping and indecently treating a young girl who was a friend of her family a decade ago has staunchly denied the claims in court amid revelations the woman’s stepfather had also been accused of raping the complainant.

The woman, who cannot be named under a non-publication order, took the stand to begin her defence against 11 charges on day five of the Gympie District Court trial.

For more than two hours the woman, aged in her 0a member of the Jehovah’s Witness Church, denied there was any truth to the sexual abuse claims dating back to a four-period from 2007-2011.

The allegations included that on separate occasions the woman touched the girl’s vagina while in the shower following a sleepover, that she had touched the girl’s vagina while alone with her in the woman’s parents’ car outside the church, and orally sexually assaulted the girl in a mothers and babies room at the church.

The woman denied each incident as it was put to her during two hours on the stand on Monday.

She denied Crown Prosecutor Katrina Overell’s suggestions she had “monopolised” the girl’s time and was “possessive of her”, and that the girl had “grown to dislike her” and “hated” her.

The woman testified in her own defence for more than two hours in Gympie District Court on Monday.

“She would say she hated lots of people,” the woman said.

Her time in the witness box followed testimony from the prosecution’s last witness, Detective Senior Constable Melissah Rose from Gympie’s Child Investigation Unit, that the girl had made allegations against another member of the woman’s family as well.

Constable Rose testified she interviewed the complainant on four separate occasions about the incidents now before the courts.

However under cross examination it was revealed she had conducted a fifth interview in which it was alleged the woman’s stepfather had raped the complainant.

In the interview, which was played to the court, the complainant told Constable Rose the woman’s stepfather had woken her while she was sleeping at the woman’s home in 2008.

The court heard the girl had also made a rape complaint against the woman’s stepfather, but no charges were laid due to insufficient evidence.

“I remember him pulling me out of bed, taking me out to the front of the house to the front lawn and raping me,” she said.

She said her dad was in hospital at the time and the woman’s stepfather threatened to rip the cords out of the hospital wall if she told anyone.

No charges were ever laid.

Constable Rose told the court this was due to insufficient evidence and gaps in the girl’s memory owing to the number of years between the time it allegedly happened and her remembering it.

During the woman’s testimony she denied her stepfather had ever entered her room as alleged.

“It would not be possible to not know someone was in my room,” she told the court.

The trial continues Tuesday July 20.