George McVeigh to be tried in Warwick District Court on rape, sexual assault charges

Details of the serious allegations levelled against the prominent Warwick stock agent have been aired to a court for the first time.

IN COURT: Prominent Warwick stock agent and community figure George McVeigh has been committed to trial on charges of attempted rape and sexual assault. Picture: file

A prominent Warwick stock agent and community figure accused of sexually assaulting and trying to rape a woman has been committed to trial in a higher court.

George Joseph McVeigh appeared in Warwick Magistrates Court this week and pleaded not guilty to one charge each of attempted rape and sexual assault.

It is alleged the 57-year-old tried to rape the woman and performed oral sex on her without consent on the evening of January 31.

Seven witnesses gave evidence for the prosecution in the committal hearing including the alleged victim and her husband, two of their friends, and three police officers who were involved in the investigation.

The husband testified that he was told of the alleged assault by the two friends later that same evening, and had himself noticed his wife “didn’t seem like herself” when he’d spoken to her earlier.

He said the woman was visibly distressed when the three asked for further details on what had happened, with the allegations of non-consensual oral sex not emerging until several days later.

“She was having trouble talking, she didn’t say too much. She said he’d sexually abused her,” the husband said.

“She said he stripped her clothes off.”

The woman’s friends both also gave evidence of the alleged victim’s emotional distress that evening, saying they all spoke with her for at least an hour to try to calm her down and find out what happened.

The Warwick court heard the woman and her husband went to the hospital and the police station the next day.

Warwick CIB Detectives Sergeant Glen Roche and Senior Constable Jim Doyle told the court they’d both spoken with the woman, filing an initial report and taking her statement respectively.

Both said the woman did not make any allegations of oral sex in her first statement, with those not mentioned until she returned to the police station days later and spoke with Detective Senior Constable Denise Parer.

“She indicated that she was embarrassed about talking about these topics,” Senior Constable Parer said in offering an explanation as to why the woman might have left the information out of her initial statement.

Defence lawyer Terry O’Gorman contended there was evidence in the days leading up to the alleged incident that suggested there may have been some reciprocal interest between Mr McVeigh and the woman, calling into question the issue of consent.

Mr O’Gorman also repeatedly queried why it took police several days after the alleged offending to collect the clothes the woman was wearing the night of the alleged assault, questioning the involved officers’ experience and training.

“If you did have a conversation with her - namely, ‘Who have you spoken to between Monday and today that’s caused you to come back?’ - if you’d asked her that, there’d be a comment in the statement to that effect, wouldn’t there?” Mr O’Gorman asked of Senior Constable Parer.

Mr McVeigh declined the opportunity to speak to the charges, with Mr O’Gorman entering the pleas of not guilty on his behalf.

The Warwick man was supported by his daughters and mother from the courtroom gallery.

Mr McVeigh’s trial will be listed in a sitting of Warwick District Court in 2022.