Magistrate urged to make a finding of not-guilty in Croydon sergeant Rebecca Anne MacLeod case

Conflicting accounts from prosecution witnesses have been cited as reason to acquit a Croydon police sergeant accused of sexually touching one of her colleagues at work.

Victoria Police Sergeant Rebecca MacLeod arrives at the Melbourne Magistrates Court to answer charges of intentional sexual touching without consent and unlawful assault. Picture NCA NewsWire / Aaron Francis

A magistrate has been urged to acquit a female police sergeant who has been accused of sexually touching one of her colleagues, following nearly a week of testimony from fellow officers.

Defence barrister Geoffrey Steward said conflicting accounts from virtually every witness meant the prosecution case against the 44-year-old Croydon sergeant, Rebecca Anne MacLeod, was unreliable.

Mr Steward, who had said in February that his client was accused of strumming a male officer’s penis “like a guitar”, said the descriptions of the touching had varied widely.

None of the police officers called to give evidence this week at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court claimed to have seen the alleged incident, rather they described what they had been told about it afterwards by the alleged victim.

Police officers variously said it was a “tapping”, a “grabbing”, a “brushing”, “a groping” or a “touch” and the prosecution case was that it had been a “drumming” motion.

Mr Steward said there were also contradictory statements made about other conversations regarding the incident.

Victoria Police Sergeant Rebecca MacLeod arrives at the Melbourne Magistrates Court to answer charges of intentional sexual touching without consent and unlawful assault. Picture NCA NewsWire / Aaron Francis

There were three separate witnesses who relayed to the court that they had been told by the alleged victim it had been treated dismissively by his police inspector who shrugged it off saying “it should be OK – she’s gay”.

“(The police inspector) said that was untrue,” Mr Steward said.

“He rejected that allegation.”

The police Inspector told the court he was “disappointed” the alleged victim escalated his report of the incident to the Professional Services Command and gave them a different and more serious account of what had happened.

Mr Steward said another police officer who had acted as a support person for the alleged victim during a meeting with Sgt MacLeod asked him after the meeting whether he was OK and whether he accepted the offered apology.

She said he had said yes to both those questions, but told the alleged victim denied to the court that he had said he was “OK” and accepted the apology.

The prosecutor, Nikolas Barron, said victims of sexual assaults sometimes gave shortened descriptions of their allegations to avoid going into detail many times over, and not much weight should be assigned to those differing accounts.

Magistrate Johanna Metcalf said she would adjourn the case until August and would deliver her verdict at the next date.