Neighbour on trial for allegedly masturbating while looking at 9-year-old girl

A 9-year-old girl told her mum their neighbour was doing “something weird” with his hands as he stared at her. Now he is on trial accused of masturbating in front of a child.

A man allegedly masturbated while staring at his 9-year-old neighbour playing on her trampoline in her backyard

A trial for a man accused of masturbating in front of a young girl as she played in her backyard has begun after the 9-year-old complained to her mum about the neighbour doing something “weird” with his hands.

The man has pleaded not guilty to two counts of indecent treatment of a child under 12 which is alleged to have occurred a month apart from each other last year.

He can’t be named to protect the identity of the child.

On Tuesday, crown prosecutor Terance McCosker told the jury what the little girl told police.

“’Where is the man looking?’,” Mr McCosker said.

“’Straight at me’. That’s how (the girl) replied when she was asked what (the man) was doing when he was masturbating.”

The man on trial shares a fence line with the young girl and her family, with a trampoline located in the backyard that she played on.

Jurors were told they would be hearing from the girl, her mother and a police officer involved in the investigation.

“(The girl) will explain a time where she jumped on the trampoline in the backyard and saw her neighbour masturbating in the doorway of the ground level entry of his house,” Mr McCosker said.

“She went and told her mother. You will hear (she) saw (him) doing something weird with his hands, and it made her sick. You will hear the child explain he looked straight at her.”

The crown said the family installed cameras in the backyard near the trampoline after this, which captured the second alleged offence a month later.

“When you are considering the evidence I want you to consider the act of masturbating needs to be deliberate, the exposure does not. Exposure can be deliberate or reckless where the experience of the act is a likely consequence,” the prosecutor said.

The mother of the girl said she didn’t approach the neighbour after the first time her daughter said he had allegedly masturbated in front of her because it was an “uncomfortable”and “embarrassing” conversation to have.

She instead decided to investigate herself by putting up new security cameras and continued to let her daughter play in the backyard because she said she should feel safe in her own home.

The mum said second time her daughter told her she had seen the man allegedly masturbating, the mum said she called out “hi, hello” to him.

She told the court she had wanted to scream at him but didn’t because she noticed his family on the second floor of the house directly above him, and didn’t want to traumatise his child.

After this second occasion, she took the CCTV footage from her security cameras and went to the police station.

She spoke with a plain clothes senior constable who was stationed at the Child Protection and Investigation Unit.

The court heard he later interviewed the girl and then arrested the neighbour, after he refused to participate in a police interview.

Accused thought it was “dark enough” to masturbate

The accused who was represented by Ross Malcomson, instructed by Strategic Lawyers, chose to give evidence and said he had decided to use the few minutes while he waited for his outdoor BBQ to heat up to “take care” of himself.

“It was dark downstairs so I thought it was dark enough to (masturbate),” he said.

He said he was looking down at himself and never looked at the young girl while he was masturbating and didn’t believe anyone outside could have seen him because it was dark.

The carpenter told the court that this was the only occasion he had ever stood in that spot and masturbated and had never previously walked around in his yard naked.

Mr McCosker put it to the man that the reason he lost his erection before he walked back outside was because the young girl had gone inside her home.

The father of two denied this and said he had struggled to maintain his erection the whole time.

Eight male jurors, four female and one reserve were empanelled on day one of the trial before Justice David North.

The trial will resume on Wednesday morning for the judge’s summing up.

Originally published as Neighbour on trial for allegedly masturbating while looking at 9-year-old girl