Appal Sami Naidu varies bail on underage sex charge
A magistrate has allowed a man, accused of offering to pay a teen girl for sex at a western Sydney bus stop, back into the city’s CBD.
Penrith
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A man who police allege offered to pay a 15-year-old girl for sex at a Penrith bus stop will be allowed back into the CBD.
Appal Sami Naidu, 51, of Penrith, pleaded not guilty to a charge of procuring a child under 16 for unlawful sexual activity on February 17.
Police will allege Naidu offered to smoke cannabis with the alleged victim before offering to pay her to come to his house and have sex with him on February 10.
The alleged victim was said to have felt uncomfortable, and later told her family about the incident before reporting it to police.
Police allegedly had CCTV footage of Naidu speaking to the girl, and he was later arrested in the same clothes.
Naidu’s bail on February 17 included a condition to not go within 100 metres of the Penrith bus interchange or railway station, but that condition was deleted on Friday.
His lawyer said there were “a couple of issues” with the condition.
“If you look at where he’s living, if he steps southward out of his doorstep he’s within 100m of the station,” he said.
“The concourse through the railway station is basically the only means from getting from his address to the Penrith CBD.
“I’m instructed his partner has some significant health issues which makes walking and travelling somewhat difficult for her, and that’s been confounded by the face he’s unable to access the CBD.”
The prosecution did not oppose the bail variation.
“We’ve discussed the fact that in terms of the protection of the community, it’s dubious that excluding him from one location would have any effect,” his lawyer said.
“The application was for an amendment to not loiter in the area, but the difficulty of that is it becomes incredibly hard to police.”
Magistrate Brian van Zuylen approved the bail variation.
Naidu will next appear before court on September 21.