Queensland police put rape case on hold for 10 years

Queensland Police Service sat on a rape case for 10 years while the alleged rapist drove children around in a PCYC bus, it can be revealed.

A RAPE case involving children was sat on by Queensland police for 10 years despite the victims giving detailed accounts of the abuse.

Following a shock court ruling, NewsRegional Media can reveal a stepfather convicted of raping his two stepdaughters was able to drive children around in a PCYC bus despite the victims making statements to Queensland police a decade earlier.

The stepfather, a former council worker who cannot be named, was sentenced to 14 years' jail after a jury found him guilty of sexually abusing the young girls between 1986 and 1997 at various family homes across Townsville.

This week, the Supreme Court of Queensland ordered that the stepfather be retried after he successfully argued there were flaws in his 2018 trial and that they hindered his chance of acquittal.

Shockingly, the online judgment revealed that the man's two stepdaughters, Emily* and Jane*, had given statements at Townsville Police Station 10 years before charges were laid.

During the 2018 trial, evidence was given that Townsville police officer Benjamin Hunter took the women's statements in November 2006 and told them he would be in touch.

But neither women heard from Queensland police for 10 years.

The judgment detailed how neither women contacted police again, with Emily believing police were "investigating the matter", and Jane believing "no news was good news".

No further steps were taken until 2016, when the sisters, "angry and wanting answers", phoned the officer after Jane had seen their stepfather driving a PCYC bus with children on it who "could not talk".

During the trial, the court was told the officer had placed the investigation on hold because Jane had wanted to move house before the investigation proceeded.

The officer, who was at one stage officer in charge of the Townsville Child Protection and Investigation Unit, testified that he had tried to contact Jane by phone but was unsuccessful.

The stepfather was charged in 2016 for the abuse, which the Crown will allege spanned 11 years.

It will be alleged that Emily was four when her stepfather began abusing her, forcing her to perform oral sex and later, when she was seven, raping her because she was a "big girl now".

Jane will allege that from 13, her stepfather raped her while forcing her to watch porn.

It was only after Jane moved out of the house at 18 that she later told Emily of the abuse.

Emily initially denied that she had been abused, but later told Jane everything.

In 2018, the stepfather was jailed but appealed the conviction on the grounds that some of the evidence was insufficient, while other evidence was inadmissable and prejudicial.

He also argued that the Crown could not charge that the girls were under 12.

The Supreme Court of Queensland acquitted the stepfather of one charge of indecent treatment of a child and ordered he be retried on six counts of rape, five indecent treatment of a child charges and one of maintaining a sexual relationship with a child.

He will receive a new trial at a date to be fixed. - NewsRegional.

*Not the sisters' real names

*For 24-hour sexual violence support call the national hotline 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or MensLine on 1800 600 636.

Originally published as Queensland police put rape case on hold for 10 years