Central QLD man accused of sex relationship, rape stepdaughter
A Queensland man accused of maintaining a sexual relationship with his teenage stepdaughter has been granted bail after two aborted trials.
Police & Courts
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A Central Queensland man accused of maintaining a sexual relationship with his teenage stepdaughter has been granted bail after two aborted trials.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, made a successful bail application in the Supreme Court in Rockhampton this week.
Defence barrister Maree Willey said her client had 13 sexual offence charges against the child.
The charges include one count of maintain a sexual relationship with a child, six counts of rape, two counts of indecent treatment of a child under 12 in care and four counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 in care during a five-year period.
Ms Willey said the second trial heard about four DNA samples of which three had DNA from a mixture of people including the defendant and the levels indicated the defendant may have touched evidence at some point.
“It’s not an overwhelmingly strong crown case,” she argued.
Ms Willey said after the second trial, he was refused bail as it was expected the third trial would take place two months later.
Crown prosecutor Cameron Keast argued the judge who presided over the second trial had heard all of the evidence before the trial was aborted.
He said the judge concluded the crown’s case was strong which formed part of the reason the bail refusal at that time.
Ms Willey said there has been a change in planned date of the third trial due to availability of all parties required for a trial to go ahead and the earliest the third trial can take place now in five months time – October.
Ms Willey said the defendant’s criminal record was dated and irrelevant, containing no breaches of bail or fail to appear in court during the two years since he has been charged over these allegations.
She said he checked himself out of hospital once while receiving treatment for a snake bite just so he could meet his court obligations.
Ms Willey said her client has a job to go to and has a new partner.
The defendant was granted bail with conditions to not go near the complainant’s residence.
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