Australian Army soldier arrested and charged with 70 sex offences
A former Australian Army soldier charged with 70 offences including rape and indecent treatment of children has been granted bail – despite his granddaughters being among the alleged victims.
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A FORMER Australian Army soldier charged with 70 offences including rape and indecent treatment of children has been let out on bail.
The man in his 70s, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested and charged yesterday.
He appeared in Redcliffe Magistrates Court, and a duty lawyer made a bail application.
The court heard the defendant had been charged with 70 offences including rape and indecent treatment of children and that many of the victims were his granddaughters.
Magistrate Bucknall adjourned the matter to today so he could obtain a list of addresses for the victims to assess the likelihood of the defendant coming into contact with them if he was granted bail.
After seeing the list of 16 names in court today Magistrate Bucknall granted the veteran’s bail application but imposed strict conditions.
The defendant must reside at his home north of Brisbane, must wear an angle tracking device, must not go within 100m of a school and the suburbs where the victims live.
He was also banned from contacting the victims.
Magistrate Bucknall said the tracking device would be programmed with these exclusion zones.
He warned the defendant that if he were to break any of the bail conditions he would be sent to prison until an outcome was determined.
The matter was adjourned to Redcliffe Magistrates Court for a committal mention on August 6.
EARLIER:
A MAN in his 70s has been arrested and charged with 70 sexual offences including the alleged rape and indecent treatment of children.
It is alleged his own granddaughters are among the victims.
The man from Brisbane’s north, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested this morning and appeared in Redcliffe Magistrates Court today.
The court heard the defendant, a former Australian Army soldier, committed the alleged offences between 2005 and December 2019.
He is charged with 70 offences; a mix of indecent treatment of a child and rape.
While each charge was not read aloud in court Magistrate Bucknall described the long list as “a shocking state of affairs”.
“There is 15 years of serious offending against mainly his granddaughters,” Magistrate Bucknall said of the allegations.
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“Some of his own children are fathers of some of these victims, they have expressed outrage of course.”
The court heard that one victim had been living with the defendant up until early this year.
Today, solicitor Kerala Drew lodged a bail application on behalf of the defendant.
She argued that he had a chronic medical condition and that he had an unremarkable criminal history.
Ms Drew told the court any concerns about the defendant failing to appear or reoffending could be mitigated with strict bail conditions such as a curfew, GPS tracking monitor, no contact orders with the victims and family and regular reporting to police.
Police Prosecutor Sergeant Kristine Bambrick was against the bail application.
She said the defendant was an unacceptable risk of reoffending.
Magistrate Bucknall said he was not ready to rule on the bail application until being made aware of where the victims lived.
“I want to make sure he is not going to be going anywhere near them,” Magistrate Bucknall said.
He noted that if the defendant was to be found guilty he would be sentenced to a lengthy term of imprisonment.
The matter was adjourned until June 19.