Man accused of raping young daughter ‘the unluckiest man in the world’, prosecutor says

A MAN accused of sexually abusing his young daughter is either “the unluckiest man in the world” or a serial rapist, a court has heard

Jurors will retire to consider their verdict on Tuesday.

• NT man faces trial for allegedly repeatedly raping, violently assaulting young daughter
• Rape trial hears family on both sides pressured daughter to accuse dad then recant

A MAN accused of sexually abusing his young daughter is either “the unluckiest man in the world” or a serial rapist, a court has heard.

The 37-year-old, who cannot be named to protect his daughter’s identity, is facing trial in the Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to eight counts of raping the girl when she was aged between 10 and 13.

The man took the stand in his own defence on Monday, where he denied ever touching his daughter inappropriately, telling jurors “this is my life on the line over allegations that are not true”.

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“If I was guilty for this I’m pretty sure I’d just stand up — not pretty sure, I’m sure — I would never put my family through this,” he said.

“This thing that’s been put against me is total lies, I’ve never done anything of the kind to a member of my family, especially my daughter.”

The man said a shirt found hanging above his daughter’s bed with his semen on it was actually a rag he’d used when he masturbated once when no one else was home.

But in his closing address to the jury, Crown prosecutor Matt Nathan SC said if that was true the man was “the unluckiest man in the world”.

“According to him, the shirt that he used on a random occasion, years ago, as part of an unused pile of washing to be thrown out, is dumped then picked up by the complainant or first perhaps by his stepdaughter, then by the complainant, then placed in her room only to be seized by police,” he said.

“You think about the connection and the series of circumstances, the alignment of the planets that needs to occur for all of those things to fall in place and for that shirt with his semen to end up in front of (police).

“What I’ll be suggesting to you is that that is a clear fabrication, that that is a clear lie by the accused because he knew if he told the truth about how his semen ended up on his daughter’s shirt he’d be found guilty.”

The man’s barrister, Peter Maley, only gave a truncated closing address to be continued on Tuesday but said the evidence of a woman the girl told about the alleged abuse “has a bit of a smell to it”.

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“She knows this child has already said ‘I hate my life, I’m not happy there, I’m Cinderella, my mum’s a bitch’, I think was the phrase she used, ‘I’m not happy with my dad’,” he said.

“Of course she’s going to go down that path and make that allegation and once the genie’s out of the bottle you can see it change and evolve and it gets worse and worse.”

Jurors will retire to consider their verdict on Tuesday.