Young Mackay man found not guilty to raping, guilty to molesting child

A Mackay teen has received no conviction or punishment after a jury found him guilty of “disgraceful” conduct against a young girl at his home. WARNING: Graphic content

Jury finds adult teen guilty of indecent treatment against a young girl, but not guilty of rape and another indecent treatment charge.

A Mackay teen has been released absolutely with no punishment after a jury found him guilty of “disgraceful” conduct against a young girl at his home.

The offending occurred sometime in late 2019 or early 2020 when she, aged 12 or 13, had been visiting his Mackay region home as she was friends with his half sister.

He was aged 16 or 17 at the time.

Mackay District Court heard he had pulled her into a room, sat her on the bed and while he held down by her hand he forced his hand down her pants and touched her genitals.

The matter went to trial where he pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and two counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16. He was found guilty of one count of the indecent treatment and acquitted of the other two charges.

Crown prosecutor Sinead Butler said the conduct for which he was found guilty “would have been a distressing event for (the girl) emotionally”.

The court heard the now adult teen had spent 281 days in custody on remand before he was granted bail.

Defence barrister Scott McLennan said his client had re-engaged with the Jehovah’s Witness church and read the bible every day.

Judge John Allen said “it was disgraceful behaviour” but that “I must have regard to the fact you were a child at the time the offence was committed”.

The court heard the penalty at the time would have been probation.

Judge Allen said it was also relevant it was not alleged he had committed any further offences.

He released the teen absolutely and a conviction was not recorded.

‘It’s so wrong’: Jury reaches verdict in child rape trial

A young man will learn his fate on Tuesday after a lengthy third day of jury deliberations in a child rape and molestation trial.

The young man was charged with raping an underage girl, sexually assaulting her, and ejaculating on her on three separate occasions.

The seven-woman, five-man jury found him not guilty of raping or ejaculating on a young girl, but found him guilty of indecent treatment of a child under 16.

The defendant began crying as the jury’s verdict was read out.

He stated “it’s so wrong” over and over as he was released from the dock and left the courtroom.

Judge John Allen began the day summing up the case to the jury, foregrounding some argument about the girl’s mental state at the time of the alleged offending.

Defence barrister Scott McLennan’s closing submissions emphasised the girl admitting to hearing voices telling her to self-harm, but Judge Allen reminded the jury she had no formal diagnosis.

Mr McLennan also made some arguments about collusion of evidence between the girl and her friends, who were interviewed, but the jury heard the girls’ observed conversation occurred after their interviews.

The jury deliberated for hours, returning to the courtroom to rewatch key interviews, before delivering their verdict at 4.40pm.

Crown prosecutor Sinead Butler and Mr McLennan requested more time to come up with sentence submissions and the final outcome of the now four-day trial will be decided Tuesday.

Ms Butler said the young man’s bail should be revoked due to his guilty verdict, but Mr McLennan argued his client had served 10 months presentence custody already.

Judge Allen extended his bail until May 30, 9.30am.

Trial Day 2 Love letter ‘disproves’ he raped her: Defence

A love letter from a man accused of handcuffing and raping a young girl has been revealed in court, with his lawyer arguing it “disproves” he raped her.

The details of the letter were heard in day two of a trial continuing in Mackay District Court.

The trial began on Thursday during which the court heard the young man had allegedly laughed when he raped a virgin child, then aged 12 to 13, after handcuffing her to his bed in a room where his brother and half sister were also sleeping.

The court heard the girl began visiting the Mackay region home in 2019 and was friends with her alleged attacker’s half sister.

On two later occasions between 2019 and 2020, he is also accused of fingering her and waking her up by ejaculating on her in the same home.

On Friday, Crown Prosecutor Sinead Butler told the court the man, who was also a juvenile at the time of the alleged offence, wrote to the girl saying he was “at the point of no return”.

“I’m not going to force anything on you … [but] I’m not going to lose you, love is complicated,” the letter states.

“I’m writing you this letter because I love you sooo [sic] much, telling you isn’t enough.

“I want to love you but I don’t know if you want to love me back.

“I want to make you c**e harder than ever before and c**e all over you.”

The man has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape, indecent treatment of a child under 16 and exposing a child to an indecent act between 2019 and 2021 at a Mackay region suburb.

Ms Butler said the letter was an “admission” of his desires.

But defence barrister Scott McLennan said the letter “disproves the rape … because no one would write that letter”.

“It works both ways, that letter,” Mr McLennan told the court.

“The prosecutor has relied heavily on the letter … [but] that submission is not supported by the chronology of events.

“(The) rape is said to have happened mid 2019 and that letter is given around Valentine's Day in February 2020.

“The chronology … is not that he gave her this letter and … then raped her.”

Mr McLennan also questioned why there was no reasonable explanation why the girl continued to return to the same house where she alleges she was raped.

He said the girl’s evidence showed “dishonesty and duplicity”, describing differences between her court testimony and her initial police interview.

While police heard she was handcuffed during the alleged rape, Mr McLennan said this was amended during cross-examination with the girl saying she had been released before it occurred.

“She was making it up as she went along in that police interview,” Mr McLennan said.

“(And during cross-examination, she) was changing her answers as it suited her every 30 seconds.”

The girl’s mental health was also brought into question, with Mr McLennan reminding the jury the girl admitted to hearing voices “of boys screaming at her to go kill herself”.

The court heard her friends had corroborated discussions about whether she could have schizophrenia and OCD.

Ms Butler and Mr McLennan delivered their closing addresses on Friday afternoon.

The trial will conclude under Judge John Allen on Monday.

Trial Day 1 ‘Obsessed with her’: Man denies vile sex attacks on child

Crown Prosecutor Sinead Butler told Mackay District Court the girl was aged 12 to 13 “when she was (allegedly) brazenly raped and sexually offended against” by the man, who was then also a juvenile teen, at his home.

The court heard the girl began visiting the home in 2019 and was friends with her alleged attacker’s half sister.

During her opening to the seven-woman, five-man jury Ms Butler said one night while the girl was having a sleeping over at the home – in a room where her friend, the accused teen and his brother also slept – he allegedly pulled her onto his bed and handcuffed her for a time.

“Then he released her and raped her,” Ms Butler said.

“She was eventually able to knock him off and he laughed.”

The court heard she had been a virgin.

It was also alleged another time he pulled her into a room, holding her down by her wrists and thigh and forced his inside her underwear touching her genitals.

Ms Butler said it was alleged at one point his brother entered the room and just spoke to him normally.

The court heard during another sleeping over the girl, then 13, allegedly woke to the teen standing over her masturbating before ejaculating on her chest and stomach.

Ms Butler said he allegedly laughed as she washed herself.

The jury heard five witnesses, including the girl, would give evidence.

The court heard when she first met the then teen “she had a little crush on him” and at the beginning there was some flirting, “kissing (and) groping”, which ended when she said she did not want it to continue.

Ms Butler told the jury she later began dating his brother and so she continued to go to the home.

“Importantly you’ll hear that throughout this time the defendant was obsessed with (the girl),” she alleged to the court.

“He continued to have a sexual interest in her, which he acted upon.

“He would watch her as she had sex with her boyfriend in the shower.

“He would watch her when she showered and went to the toilet.”

The trial, under Judge John Allen, continues.

Originally published as Young Mackay man found not guilty to raping, guilty to molesting child