Indecent treatment charges against David Carl Ewen dismissed

Charges against a man accused of groping a 15-year-old girl on a cruise ship have been dropped after a magistrate found the evidence didn’t stack up.

Mackay Magistrates Court heard police charged David Carl Ewen with two counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 on March 24, 2024, even though the 15 year old had identified another man on a photo ID board. Picture: Nine News

A magistrate has dismissed charges against a New South Wales man accused of fondling a teen girl on a cruise, finding the evidence didn’t stack up.

Mackay Magistrates Court heard police charged David Carl Ewen with two counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 on March 24, 2024, even though the 15 year old had identified another man on a photo ID board.

Police alleged the 56-year-old twice indecently dealt with the teen while the pair were on a Royal Caribbean Cruises liner as it was off the Mackay region.

The court heard the teen said about 10.30pm while she was standing with two friends near a restaurant a man gave her a weird look and then brushed past her genitalia.

Two minutes later as the trio were in the lift lobby, she said it felt like someone had started touching her bottom but then she was pushed out of the way by her friend who had seen a man staring at her bottom and moved to touch it.
The court heard the teen had looked behind her and had seen the same man from earlier.

When the matter was listed for committal in October 2024 Mr Ewen’s legal team made a no case submission, arguing there was “no evidence that identifies … Mr Ewen as the person who did the alleged acts complained about”.

They further argued the prosecution case relied on circumstantial evidence of identification only and was “purely speculative based on four unexpressed assumptions” of a security guard on the cruise liner.

Magistrate Michelle Howard, in handing down her decision on the no case submission on Thursday, said it was common ground the CCTV footage did not capture the alleged conduct.

The court heard the security guard had been made aware of an incident two days later prompting an on-board investigation during which he reviewed CCTV footage from which he claimed to have identified Mr Ewen as being in the area when the offending allegedly occurred.

The court heard however he had just identified a person who had been in the vicinity of the two locations and then tasked some unnamed person on his team to track that person on the ship’s CCTV – that team member tracked that person to a room on the ship and they checked the passenger list for that room.

When the teen gave a description to police she said the man had been wearing a green and white striped button up shirt and holding a drink, but could not remember the colour the trousers he was wearing or the colour of his hair but was “pretty sure” it was grey/brown.

The court heard when she looked at the police photo board, that included Mr Ewen and 11 other men, she indicated she “might recognise” one of the men and it was not Mr Ewen.

Magistrate Michelle Howard, in handing down her decision on the no case submission on Thursday, said it was common ground the CCTV footage did not capture the alleged conduct.

“It is further common ground that there is a person seen on the CCTV outside (the two areas), who is wearing a green and white striped shirt and … that person is not the defendant,” Ms Howard said.

The court heard Mr Ewen’s defence team argued the security guard’s evidence assumed the person, who did not match the teen’s description, committed the offences and that they were accurately tracked by his team.

Ms Howard determined there was no evidence linking Mr Ewen to the alleged conduct and found there was no case to answer. The charges were dismissed.