Gregory Michael Davis waits to hear sexual touching verdict

A 53-year-old man who was accused of sexually touching a volunteer while he was on deployment from interstate for the 2019 Northern NSW bushfires has defended the allegations.

Gregory Michael Davis, 51, from Wayville, has been charged with four counts of sexually touching another person without consent and one count of inflicting actual bodily harm with intent to have sexual intercourse.

A Lismore magistrate has reserved his judgment in the case of a senior fire commander charged with sexually touching a woman without consent.

Gregory Michael Davis, 53, from the South Australian suburb of Wayville, this week gave evidence to a Lismore Local Court hearing by video link from an Adelaide courtroom.

Mr Davis was initially charged with four counts of aggravated sexual touching of another person but the prosecution has only proceeded with three of those charges.

Crown prosecutor David Morters told Magistrate Jeff Linden in Lismore Local Court the defendant should be convicted of all three counts when he gave his closing submissions on Friday.

Defence counsel Scott Henchcliffe QC argued his client should be cleared of all allegations.

The prosecution alleged Mr Davis committed the offences while he was on deployment to the Northern NSW bushfires in early December 2019.

His alleged victim was a volunteer firefighter who had been assigned as his “scribe”.

A fire was burning at Paddys Flat while Mr Davis and his alleged victim were on deployment to Northern NSW from South Australia.

They had met on the plane from Adelaide to Glen Innes and while both expected to work on the fireground, they were re-tasked to work out of the Casino fire control centre.

The woman alleged the offences took place inside Mr Davis’ motel room in Casino.

She was staying in a nearby room.

Mr Morters argued the alleged victim was reliable in her evidence.

He said this was in contrast with the accused.

“What (Mr Davis) did when he got in the witness box was give a carefully crafted account,” Mr Morters said.

He argued Mr Davis “couldn’t deny any sexual conduct” because he had conceded to a senior officer at the SA Metropolitan Fire Service that “things had happened but were consensual”.

He made this concession when being handed a notice he could not return to work, the court heard.

Mr Davis and the complainant were tasked with working out of the fire control centre at Casino.

Mr Morters said the defendant “made up a story of consensual contact” which he claimed ended at the woman’s request.

The woman gave evidence none of the alleged intimate contact between them was consensual.

“The story is far too incredible to cause your honour to give it any weight whatsoever,” Mr Morters said.

Mr Morters said there was a “significant power differential” because of Davis’ senior rank and apparent command over a strike team, although that was challenged by the defence.

He said the accused had placed undue weight on an inference the alleged victim behaved in a “provocative way toward him”.

While Mr Davis gave evidence the woman instigated a plan to have drinks together before the alleged offences, the court heard her evidence was that he set all of the events in motion.

“He really does do his best in the evidence … to paint the complainant as some sort of temptress, the one that was leading the activities on that evening as opposed to what your honour will accept was the reality of the situation,” Mr Morters said.

“He insisted throughout that he had no sexual interest in the activities that were taking place even though he conceded at one point he was rubbing her breasts … (and) he had removed the clothing from the bottom part of his body.”

Bushfires ravaged large parts of Northern NSW in late 2019.

Mr Henchcliffe said there were “a number of elements to be proved” in relation to each charge.

He argued the court could not be convinced beyond a reasonable double on any of the allegation.

He said the defence disputed the assertions the woman did not consent to the intimate contact, that his client knew she did not consent and also that an “aggravating feature” existed.

The prosecution has argued Mr Davis’ alleged conduct was aggravated because the woman was “under his authority”.

Mr Henchcliffe argued against this point.

Mr Henchcliffe told the court there were discrepancies between the woman’s early statements and her subsequent evidence before the court.

“Mr Davis’ account of what took place in that room was even more plausible,” he said.

“There is too much inconsistency in what she said to the doctor, what she said in evidence in chief and what she said in cross examination.

“In my submission your honour should find him not guilty.”

Damage to the town of Rappville after fire tore through the region in October, 2019. Bushfires continued across large parts of Northern NSW for months.

Mr Henchcliffe suggested the woman consented to all of the encounter between them and felt guilty upon returning to her room and finding a text from her partner.

He argued a “very mild” complaint to her boyfriend “got escalated in a way she didn’t intend or even contemplate” after it was brought to the attention of her firefighting colleagues.

“She didn’t want to report the matter to police,” he said.

“She just wanted to be reassigned and not work with (Mr Davis) the next day.

“She felt guilty and regretted her own actions but once the police got involved she was stuck, she couldn't go back on anything she had said.”

The court heard someone else from the South Australian Country Fire Service made the initial complaint to police on her behalf, before she gave them a formal statement.

Magistrate Jeff Linden has reserved his decision on the matter to a later date.