Magistrate denies ‘prancing’ in nightgown before teen sex abuse, court hears

High profile magistrate Graeme Curran has denied prancing around his Sydney bedroom in front of a teenager before molesting the boy nearly forty years ago, formerly pleading not guilty to indecently assault his family friend.

A high-profile magistrate has denied prancing around his Sydney bedroom in a nightgown in front of a teenage boy before molesting him nearly 40 years ago.

Graeme Curran has pleaded not guilty to indecently assaulting a family friend nine times in the 1980s when the alleged victim was aged between 13 and 15.

Graeme Curran arrives at the Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney. Picture: Peter Rae

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Crown Prosecutor Mark Hobart SC alleged yesterday the 67-year-old performed a Saturday “ritual” of running his fingers over the teen’s genitals.

“You put on this nightdress when (the complainant) was laying there on his back, naked,” Mr Hobart told Downing Centre District Court.

“You then tiptoed in your nightdress to the door and, somewhat theatrically, locked it. You then pranced back to the bed, like a dance, and you took the nightdress off … you then lightly massaged him from basically his feet up to his head, spending more time in the groin area.”

Curran replied: “It absolutely did not happen.”

He also dismissed suggestions he tried to “explain away” the abuse by telling the child that sex with adult men was a rite of passage for adolescent boys in Ancient Greece.

Curran was aged 22 when he first met the then seven-year-old boy in 1974.

The court heard the child soon became “like a son’’ to Curran.

Curran denied ever sleeping naked with the child but admitted to sharing motel beds with him, adding that paying for an extra room would have been “a needless expense”.

He also denied grooming him with five overseas holidays, a new car for his parents and cash handouts later in life.

“I had some money and they had a big need,” he said.

The former Children’s Court magistrate also denied giving the child oral sex during a private 1982 Easter sailing trip, forcing the boy to skinny dip or touching him inappropriately on the beach.

The complainant’s girlfriend testified on Tuesday, saying the couple got drunk together around 2013 and told the “paedophile” he belonged in jail.

“You f***ed with my teenage years and in turn with my life,” they wrote in an email.

“It doesn’t go away, it will never go away. I will always have to live with this.”

In a subsequent email the complainant claimed he was entitled to damages from the magistrate, who’d allegedly already given him more than $34,000.

On Monday two of the alleged victim’s friends gave evidence, stating that he revealed to them during their university years that Curran had raped him — something the complainant does not allege now and which the magistrate has not been charged over.

Curran this week told the jury that shortly before the complainant threatened self harm in 1993, he confronted him over dinner and asked: “What are you Graeme? Are you my friend? Are you my father? Are you my lover?”.

Defence barrister Phillip Boulten SC has said the complainant suffered from alcoholism and mental illness as an adult and had undergone hypnotherapy which could have reshaped his memories.

The trial before Acting Judge Anthony Rafter continues.