Man who allegedly raped his partner’s daughter bailed as the girl’s mum stands by her man

A man who allegedly raped his partner’s eight-year-old daughter at their Brisbane home has been charged as disturbing new details come to light. WARNING: DISTRESSING

A MAN who allegedly raped his partner’s eight-year-old daughter in the family’s Brisbane home on one occasion and molested her two other times has been charged by police.

The man in his fifties, who cannot be named for legal reasons, allegedly raped his partner’s daughter sometime between April 1 – 14 this year at their former Carseldine home.

Police further charge that he indecently treated the girl as well sometime between January 1 – 31 and again sometime in April, both at Carseldine. He was charged last Friday.

During an eventful bail application earlier this week, a court heard that the girl’s mother was standing by her man despite the serious nature of the charges.

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Defence lawyer Lex Wedell said this presented no problem for his client complying with his bail conditions, as he would move out of the Logan home he now shared with his partner and the alleged victim, and onto a sailboat on the Gold Coast.

This raised alarm bells with police prosecutor John Paratz, who opposed the man’s bail on the basis of the seriousness of the charges and the fact sailboat’s are “inherently mobile”, raising questions around whether the defendant would honour his undertakings.

He also addressed the elephant in the room – “He’s still in a relationship with the mother of the victim child,” Mr Paratz said.

Beenleigh Court House and James Street. (AAP Image/Renae Droop)

While the alleged rapist may have been bailed regardless, as there is a presumption of bail on most nonviolent charges, the police case was crippled by a “significant error” in the eyes of Magistrate Louise Shephard.

In the police’s sworn affidavit opposing the man’s bail, they asserted that the man had made admissions during a pretext phone call and these corroborated with the eight-year-old’s statement.

However, neither of these things were true, as Ms Shephard pointed out.

“Actually, the attempted pretext call came to nothing because he didn’t pick up,” she said.

“And there’s been no formal record of interview with the girl.

“It’s a significant error to put in a sworn affidavit.”

Ms Shephard said despite the police’s assertion of a strong case, she was quite undecided on this point.

“How strong the case is is difficult to say at this point in time,” she said.

The man was granted bail on the condition he have no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 16, among other conditions.

While this precludes the man from seeing his partner’s daughter, it does not preclude his partner from seeing him.

The case has been adjourned from Beenleigh to Sandgate Magistrates Court next Thursday.