Man accused of raping woman in front of child

A man accused of breaking into a woman’s home and raping her in front of a child has appeared in court on a string of charges.

A woman woke “startled” to find her ex-partner had broken into her home, gone into her room and was having sex with her while a child slept beside her in bed, it has been alleged in court.

The man, who is aged in his 30s and cannot be named for legal reasons, faced Beenleigh Magistrates Court on Thursday, August 11 on charges including entering a dwelling at night with intent, rape, sexual assaults, assault, and choking, suffocation, or strangulation.

Defence solicitor Andrew Owens told the court about some of the allegations levelled against his client, being that he entered the home and bedroom of his ex-wife following the breakdown of their relationship and raped her while there were two children present.

It is alleged one child was in the bed where the alleged rape occurred while the other child was in a separate bed at the time.

Mr Owens said the woman claimed to have been woken by the man – “startled” – and realised one of the children in the room was awake, so she patted him on the head until she understood he returned to sleep.

He accepted the onus was not on the alleged victim to know the consciousness of the children in the room, as she would not have known if they were pretending to sleep.

Mr Owens said the woman then called triple-zero, telling the operator: “I didn’t say no, I just froze”.

He said she later indicated to a police officer that she had said ‘no’ twice throughout the alleged incident.

The court heard she said the accused wanted “to have sex one last time” after their relationship breakdown “because I miss you and love you”.

Mr Owens said she told police that she initially forgot to mention the man had forcibly pulled her pants down and she had said ‘no’ as “I was traumatised and keen to get to sleep”.

The defence indicated it was seeking to cross-examine the alleged victim and a police officer who took her statement.

Magistrate Mark Howden said there were two matters the defence and prosecution were unable to agree on – those being whether children were present and awake when the alleged offending took place and whether the woman consented to sex.

The court heard she believed she had told police she said ‘no’, but it was not included in her official statement.

Mr Howden agreed a cross-examination should take place as there was some “inconsistency” about “when (the woman) said ‘no’”.

The matter will return to Beenleigh Magistrates Court on November 2.