Man accused of ‘counselling’ four others into stealing his two-year-old child

Police allege the 23-year-old helped ‘counsel’ four other people charged with the stealing of a two-year-old Beenleigh child earlier this month.

The father of the boy allegedly stolen from a Beenleigh home this week has been granted bail on the condition he have no contact with the four other people charged.

The 23-year-old man, who cannot be named so as to protect the child’s identity, was granted bail at Pine Rivers Magistrates Court today.

Police have alleged the man helped “counsel” others, including Kayla Louise Houston, 26 and Gordon Wayne Wilton, 40, both from Marsden, who allegedly carried out the theft of the two-year-old child.

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The father is not alleged to have carried out the child theft himself.

He is facing charges including child stealing, assault occasioning bodily harm and illegally entering a dwelling.

Defence lawyer Shaun Kolo said the charge of child stealing against the father had been made in error as the law said a child’s father could not steal the child unless there was a court order preventing him from parenting the child.

Mr Kolo said the father would not necessarily be jailed if he was found guilty of the crime.

But Magistrate Trevor Morgan said that outcome was unlikely.

“(Jail) is not the only option, he might be convicted and not further punished, but there is a 99 per cent chance he’d go to jail for this if he was found guilty,” he said.

“The counselling a break and enter and an assault with a weapon make it much more serious than if he had just been a party to the crime.”

Mr Morgan agreed to allow the father to be released from police custody on bail on the condition he report to police every day, have no contact with the four alleged co-offenders including Ms Houston and Mr Wilton and not come within 100 metres of the four.

Originally published as Man accused of ‘counselling’ four others into stealing his two-year-old child