Michael Peele on trial for allegedly sexually abusing three girls

A jury has heard a pastor allegedly sexually assaulted girls as young as three years old on church grounds in Melbourne’s east more than 30 years ago.

Former Truth and Liberation Church pastor Michael Peele is on trial over alleged child sexual offending.

A Melbourne pastor is fighting accusations that he sexually abused girls as young as three years old on church grounds — including on a baby changing table — more than 50 years ago.

It comes as Michael Peele, 85, faces a stack of charges which relate to alleged sexual offending the Crown said took place while he was a pastor at the Truth and Liberation Church in Bayswater North in the 1990s.

The girls, who were aged between three and eight, did not go to police until 2008, with Mr Peele denying any wrongdoing during police interviews in 2010 and 2021.

The accusations include him exposing his penis to the girls, performing oral sex and forcing them to do the same as well as taking their nude photos.

Prosecutor Danielle Guesdon told the jury in the County Court on Wednesday that on one occasion, Mr Peele allegedly sexually abused one of the girls on a baby changing table in the church’s disabled toilet.

Michael Peele outside the County Court during a break from proceedings.

On another occasion, he allegedly reached over to a girl while sitting on a chair in a room off the church’s main stage and touched her leg, thigh and vagina over her underwear.

Two girls reported Mr Peele’s alleged acts to police in 2008 and 2009. Ms Guesdon said the third girl recalled the alleged sexual abuse in 2020 after she had flashbacks while watching a documentary on Jeffrey Epstein.

She told her parents and her partner what Mr Peele allegedly did before contacting police in June 2021.

In his address to the jury, defence lawyer John Desmond described claims of sexual abuse as “wicked and false” and pointed to lengthy periods of nondisclosure and the delayed complaints.

“The Crown is asking you to believe claims that include vaginal penetration of very young girls with no support of medical evidence,” he said.

“The man you are judging, members of the jury, is a good man, a decent man, he has been on the planet for 85 years and has no criminal convictions.

“He’s been a pastor for an established church. These allegations are breathtaking and outlandish.”

Judge Pardeep Tiwana earlier addressed the jury about the importance of deciding the case solely on the evidence before the court.

The trial continues.