Mackay father tries to appeal guilty rape verdict

A Qld father of two had pushed to overturn a three-year jail term after a jury found him guilty of sexually abusing his mentally impaired step daughter.

The Court of Appeal has rejected a Mackay man’s bid to overturn a rape conviction.

A Mackay father of two jailed for sexually abusing his mentally impaired stepdaughter has pushed back against the rape conviction, claiming it was inconsistent and unreasonable.

The man, in his 30s, was initially facing five sex offence charges – four counts of rape against his stepdaughter and one of sexual assault against her friend.
During a five-day trial in Mackay District Court in September 2024 he was acquitted of one rape and the sexual assault, the jury was ordered to return a not-guilty verdict on another rape charge and a third rape charge was dropped following a no case submission.

However the jury found him guilty of one count of digital rape against his 16-year-old stepdaughter, who had the mental intellect of a seven year old. He was jailed for three years to serve 12 months and was now a registered sex offender.

All offending was alleged to have occurred between mid 2020 and late 2021.

During his five-day trial the court heard the man was aware of his stepdaughter’s disability and her need for love and affection, which was accepted as being part of his manipulation and how he preyed on her.

The man appealed the result arguing the verdict was inconsistent with the acquittals and that it was “unreasonable and not supported by the evidence”.

In a recent judgment Appeals Court Justice Martin Burns said the court must be convinced the differing verdicts were “an unacceptable affront to logic and common sense”.

“As the test is one of logic and reasonableness, the question is whether a reasonable jury, who had applied their minds properly to the facts in the case, could have arrived at the various verdicts,” Justice Burns said.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said the guilty verdict relied solely on the teen’s evidence and argued it was “no stronger” than her evidence for the acquitted charges.

Justice Burns rejected this submission, who found “there was a clear difference in the quality of her evidence” in supporting on charge compared to the other charges.

He further found her evidence in relation to the charge for which he was found guilty was “quite detailed in comparison to the limited account she gave” for the other charges.

“The spontaneous way in which (she) volunteered her account to the police of the conduct … together with the detail she supplied with that account, must have struck the jury as a happening which she distinctly recalled,” Justice Burns said.

“It follows that there was a sound basis for the jury to be persuaded beyond reasonable doubt about the truthfulness and reliability of (her) evidence about (one charge), while at the same time entertaining a doubt about the reliability of her evidence on (the others).”

The appeal was dismissed.

Originally published as Mackay father tries to appeal guilty rape verdict