Mackay man pleads not guilty to raping stepdaughter four times

A man has learned his fate over having an incestuous relationship with his vulnerable teen stepdaughter about 10 years ago.

DAY 5: A man has been jailed for five-and-a-half years for having an incestuous relationship with his vulnerable teen stepdaughter after she had just moved to Mackay about 10 years ago.

As a result she fell pregnant and the man, then in his 40s who cannot be named to protect his victim’s identity, and her mother took her to Townsville to get an abortion.

Now aged in his 50s, the man was initially charged with four counts of rape at an East Mackay unit, to which he had pleaded not guilty.

But after a five-day trial in Mackay District Court a jury found him not guilty of all rape charges but guilty of three counts of incest.

Crown prosecutor Siobhan Harrison said the verdicts showed the jury accepted the girl’s descriptions of the incidents as reliable and as occurring in her room as opposed to suggestions that she had made advances on her stepfather, but could not be satisfied there was no consent.

Ms Harrison pushed for five-and-a-half to six years jail, but defence barrister Scott McLennan argued that range was too high.

“Obviously the offending is odious,” Mr McLennan said, adding it was not the type of stepfather/step daughter relationship where he “had essentially been raising (her) from a young age”.

Judge Deborah Richards found the man had taken advantage of a “very vulnerable young lady” when she was a young teen and had just moved to Australia with limited understanding of the language and no family other than her mother and stepfather.

“I do not accept any suggestion that she seduced you,” Judge Richards said.

“I find that you took advantage of her vulnerability.”

Judge Richards said it was a serious circumstance of aggravation the incest happened more than once and that she fell pregnant as a result.

“You engaged in unprotected sex with this vulnerable young lady,” Judge Richards said.

“As a result she found herself pregnant and you, together with her mother, took her to Townsville and arranged for her to abort the child.

“It wasn’t a choice for her,” Judge Richards added, after highlighting there seemed to be no consultation with the girl at the time.

“That you would take her innocence and then by your actions resulted in her being pregnant, and the emotional toll an abortion inevitably takes on someone of that age.”

Judge Richards accepted the man apologised to his former stepdaughter in 2013, had no history of offending and had offered to plead guilty to the incest charges before the trial started.

He was jailed for five-and-a-half years with parole eligibility on February 26, 2024 after serving 22 months. Convictions were recorded.

DAY 4: A woman who has accused her stepfather of repeatedly raping her when she was a teen living in Mackay allegedly went to police with a family friend months after to make a complaint but did not take it further.

The man has pleaded not guilty to four counts of rape that allegedly occurred about 10 years ago at an East Mackay unit where he lived with his then-wife and her youngest daughter.

Mackay District Court heard around that time the then-teen fell pregnant and had an abortion.

The court heard she went to the police years ago after telling her boyfriend about the alleged rape.

A family friend gave evidence the woman had lived with her for about one to three months the year after the alleged offending had occurred and told her “that she has been raped (by) her stepfather”.

She told the court she went to the police station with the then-teen.

“We went to the police station and we told her we had to tell everything about what happened and then they give us … the calling card,” the family friend said.

Plain clothes senior constable Murray Cavanagh, of Mackay Child Protection and Investigation Unit who was the arresting officer in the case, was questioned about police procedures in relation to rape complaints.

Senior Constable Cavanagh agreed the QPS had a system to document complaints and said, to his knowledge, there had been no earlier complaint to police.

Judge Deborah Richards asked the officer if someone had gone to the police station to report something and was told to phone a specific number like CPIU if that would generate a “street check”.

Senior Constable Cavanagh said it depended on the nature because people came to the police counter and say “something’s happened to me but I’m not ready to report it yet”.

“And they don’t want their details recorded, then we can’t take them,” he told the court.

The woman’s boyfriend was questioned about a number of degrading posts on Facebook that alluded to any sexual relationship between the woman and her stepfather as being consensual.

The posts read: “You pig (woman’s name) was f---ed by … your stepfather. How was he able to cope anyway, you liked it you animal”, “You did not even complain you two are even very close” and “You’re an animal letting your stepdad f--- you”.

The boyfriend said he had made the posts but he “just made this story because of my ex partner, she made me brainwashed”.

He told the court it was “my mistake”, that he had been fed information from a former girlfriend about his current girlfriend (the woman who was allegedly raped) and at the time he had been trying to get that current girlfriend’s attention.

He said he did believe his girlfriend, the alleged victim who he is still with, had been raped.

The stepfather's current partner, who gave evidence for the defence, was accused of “editing” a recorded phone conversation with the man’s former wife during which she allegedly said the relationship was consensual.

The jury was played a number of recorded phone conversations, in which Crown prosecutor Siobhan Harrison pointed out she had not used the mother’s name and suggested it was not her on the call.

She told the court the various recordings had all been part of an hour-long conversation that she had chopped into a number of smaller files, which were provided to her partner’s legal team.

Judge Richards commented that she had “selectively chosen what you think is important”.

“So you’ve selectively cut what’s suited you,” Judge Richards said. To which she replied, “yes your honour”.

The court heard there had also been a conversation that was not recorded where the former wife had said her then husband and daughter “had fallen in love with each other” and that she and her daughter “were like two wives”.

She told the court she had recorded a conversation with the mother after hearing rumours about an alleged relationship and said the mother kept changing her story and she also wanted to confront the man.

She said she had heard about the relationship from the boyfriend.

Closing addresses will begin on Tuesday.

DAY 3: A barrister has accused a mother of lying in court so her former husband would be convicted of raping her youngest daughter.

The man is charged with four counts of rape against his stepdaughter.

A Mackay District Court jury has heard more evidence from the mother of a woman, who alleged her stepfather raped her multiple times in their East Mackay unit not long after she came to Australia as a teen.

The alleged offending occurred about 10 years ago.

Defence barrister Scott McLennan has suggested the woman’s daughter never said she was raped and had told her mother “she fell in love” with her stepfather.

“Never,” the mother said, via an interpreter.

Mr McLennan suggested the mother had told a friend she would forgive her former husband, who has since divorced her, if he did three things – ask forgiveness, sign over half of all his property to her and not divorce her.

The mother denied this.

The court heard the pair were divorced in August 2020.

Mr McLennan suggested the mother told this other woman she had “chased him with a knife” and he barricaded himself in another room of the unit the day after learning her daughter was pregnant.

At this point the mother claimed privilege and later replied to this line of questioning with “I do not know”.

The court heard the mother was also accused of trying to make her former husband and daughter feel guilty by not eating for one week.

“I was shocked,” she told the court, explaining that was why she could not eat for one week “because I trusted that pig”.

The jury heard the mother and her then-stepfather took the then-teen to Townsville to have an abortion.

Mr McLennan also suggested the mother told another woman during a phone call, which was recorded and played in court, about the relationship and her daughter’s pregnancy and abortion.

The court heard during the phone call one woman, alleged to be the mother, said: “There were so many women. I let you had (sic) woman, I said. But you included your daughter too.”

The mother said she recognised the voice of the other woman, but repeatedly said it was not her own voice on the phone call.

Mr McLennan also questioned the mother about photos posted on her old Facebook wall about five years after the alleged rape depicting her and her former husband together where his arm is around her and she is smiling.

She told the court her “profile picture has been hacked”.

Mr McLennan accused the mother of saying “anything to try and get (the man) convicted of this charge”.

“What I’m saying is all the truth. I’m not making up stories,” she replied.

The trial continues tomorrow.

DAY 2: A mother has told a jury of the moment her former husband allegedly held a knife and threatened to kill her and her children after her youngest daughter had accused him of rape.

The woman told Mackay District Court the threats had occurred the day after she had learned her teen daughter was pregnant.

The man — who cannot be named to protect the identity of the alleged victim — has pleaded not guilty to raping his former step daughter at their East Mackay home about a decade a go, shortly after she had moved to Australia.

His former wife said she found out about her daughter’s pregnancy when the medical centre sent a letter to their home.

She told the court she had waited in the car while her husband and daughter had gone into the medical centre for something related to the man.

The court heard the letter came about five days to a week later and she confronted her former husband the following day saying “you’re the only one she knows”.

“He said ‘she seduced me’. I was seduced by your daughter,” the mother told the court via an interpreter.

She said her daughter had been beside her and “she shouted ‘he raped me, he raped me, mother’”.

The mother told the court her then-husband had dragged her to a room where they argued and when she said she would call the police “(he) ran to the kitchen and took a knife”.

Crown prosecutor Siobhan Harrison asked the woman what he did with the knife, to which she said he pointed the knife at her daughter.

“He threatened us. He said I’m going to kill both of you and after I kill both of you I’m going back to (their country of birth to) kill all your children,” she told the court.

The court heard the then-couple had taken the teen girl to Townsville to get an abortion.

“I just went along with what he wants because he threatened to kill me and kill my children,” she said.

The court heard the couple did not separate until about five years after the alleged rapes.

She told the court as soon as she mentioned calling the police “he became wild”.

Defence barrister Scott McLennan, for the man, pushed back against the mother’s claims, stating his client “never” threatened to kill her or her children.

“I’m suggesting to you that (your daughter) has never told you (the man) raped her,” Mr McLennan said.

“My daughter said ‘I was raped by your husband, that demon’,” the woman said.

Mr McLennan questioned why she did not go to the police, given her daughter had said she was raped and there was proof of a pregnancy.

The woman said it was because every day he pointed a knife at her daughter and “almost every day he was torturing me saying he was going to kill my children”.

Mr McLennan said the woman had not told police the man had allegedly pointed a knife at her daughter more than once.

“You’re just making up things that didn’t happen to try and answer my questions,” Mr McLennan said, to which she replied “how can I make things up?”.

Mr McLennan suggested to the woman her daughter had told her she was consenting to sex with her stepfather.

“That’s not true,” she said.

Mr McLennan also suggested the woman “tolerated what was happening” because she enjoyed living in Australia and received good wages.

The woman said she wanted to stay in Australia to give a good life for her children.

The trial under Judge Deborah Richards continues on Thursday.

DAY 1: A man has denied allegations he raped his teen stepdaughter four times in her bedroom of their East Mackay home almost a decade ago.

Mackay District Court heard he allegedly raped her three times with his penis and once digitally, and soon after she learned she was pregnant and had an abortion.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the girl’s identity, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of rape that allegedly occurred at East Mackay about 10 years ago soon after she began to live with him and her mother.

An interpreter sat next to the man — who does not speak English — relaying information as Crown prosecutor Siobhan Harrison laid bare her case for the six-man, six-woman jury.

Ms Harrison said all the alleged rapes occurred when the pair were home alone and he would force himself on her.

The court heard he allegedly twice threatened to kill or harm her mother if she told anyone.

Ms Harrison told the jury the first time he allegedly forced her on her bed and raped her “(she) was screaming and swearing at him”.

“(She) quickly discovered she was pregnant around this time,” Ms Harrison said.

The court heard the teen’s mother became aware of that pregnancy and confronted her husband about it.

Ms Harrison said during this conversation the man “did not deny any sexual conduct with (the teen) and instead told (his wife) she seduced me”.

The court heard the teen told her mother “he raped me”.

“The defendant became aggressive, he picked up a knife and threatened (the teen) with the knife and because of that (her mother) told him … that she believed him,” Ms Harrison said.

The court heard the stepfather and the teen’s mother later drove her to Townsville where she terminated the pregnancy.

The trial under Judge Deborah Richards continues.

Originally published as Mackay man pleads not guilty to raping stepdaughter four times