Mark Kevin Nash, found guilty of raping an au pair, has his appeal against conviction dismissed

A Central Queensland man sentenced to six years’ jail for raping a 24-year-old au pair at the home he shared with his wife and children, has received the result of his appeal against conviction. Here’s what the three Court of Appeal judges ruled.

Lady Justice and the scales of justice. Picture: Brendan Radke

A former Gladstone manager jailed for raping an au pair from The Netherlands, has had his appeal against conviction dismissed.

Mark Kevin Nash, a married father-of-three, was found guilty of rape by a jury in Gladstone District Court on October 24, 2019.

Three Court of Appeal judges unanimously allowed his appeal, set aside the rape conviction and ordered a retrial.

At the second trial on July 22, 2021, a jury found Nash guilty of one count of rape and he was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment.

The rape offence was committed on March 11, 2018, and involved Nash, then aged 41, having penile/vaginal intercourse with the 24-year-old complainant.

The offence took place in Nash’s residence which he shared with his wife and children.

The complainant was a national of The Netherlands who had travelled to Australia in December 2017 for a working holiday.

At the time of the offence, she was working as an au pair.

After the second trial, Nash appealed his conviction and relied upon three grounds of appeal, each of which concerned a recorded telephone call between the complainant and him.

The grounds were:

(a) the learned trial judge erred by failing to exclude the pretext call given that the purported admission against interest contained within it was not reasonably capable of being construed by the jury as an admission;

(b) a miscarriage of justice was occasioned by the failure to exclude the pretext call given it was unfair to admit it; and

(c) a miscarriage of justice was occasioned by the failure of the learned trial judge to correctly direct the jury about the use that could be made of the pretext call.

On April 19, 2022, the Court of Appeal ordered that Nash’s appeal be dismissed.

Three judges, CJ Bowskill, P Sofronoff and SJA Martin, were involved in the appeal and the reasons for dismissing it were detailed in a “publication of reasons” delivered on May 20, 2022.