Former SA Police officer found guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse with his stepdaughter

A former SA Police officer has been found guilty at trial of having unlawful sexual intercourse with his own stepdaughter.

A former SA Police officer has been found guilty of sexually abusing his 15-year-old step daughter, despite claiming she made the allegations up because she was fantasising about having sex with him.

The former police officer, who The Advertiser has chosen not to name to protect the identity of the victim, pleaded not guilty to two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and one count of indecent assault.

The charges relate to the officer’s 15-year-old step daughter, who told a counsellor and her boyfriend at the time that she had been sexually abused by an older man in September or October, 2021.

During the trial earlier this month, prosecutor Ben Sturm told the jury the incident occurred after the police officer had been drinking with the victim in their family home.

On the night of the incident, Mr Sturm said, the officer had given the victim a foot massage.

“Then he put his hands on her leg and gradually began moving up,” he said.

“He pulled her onto his lap, he kissed her and had his tongue inside her mouth.

The police officer was found guilty of two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse. Picture: NewsWire

“He climbed on top of her and kissed her neck, he then started feeling all over her body and then put his hands down her pants.”

The jury heard the victim had a hickey on her neck the following morning, which the officer told her to “pretend was a irritation”.

The jury heard that, after finding out the victim had told her counsellor about the offending, the police officer called his partner, told her what he had done to her daughter and said he would take his own life.

SA Police were then called with welfare concerns for the officer, who was located by a cliff shortly after.

Mr Sturm told the jury that the police officer had made admissions about engaging in sexual conduct with the victim.

“He admitted on the phone to (the victim’s mother) that he had ‘f***ed up’, that he kissed (the victim) and did more or other things. He didn’t want to say what those other things were.

“He admitted to (the officer who found him at the clifftop) where he said ‘it’s about my step daughter, I f***ed up’.

“Those submissions, I suggest, are very powerful indeed. As I said before, taken alone they are really conclusive of his guilt of those acts.”

The court will sentence the police officer later this year. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

Mr Sturm told the jury the police officer had told the victim he “thought it was a dream that I had, like I didn’t think it actually happened”.

He said the officer, who had spent about ten years in the police force, would tell the victim that he had ruined her childhood.

“He also made comments if she told anyone he would kill himself.”

Paul Rice KC, for the police officer, however told the jury the victim may have had a motive to lie about the allegations to her counsellor and police.

“You might think, members of the jury, she certainly had a motive to make a false allegation against him,” Mr Rice said.

“She hated him and/or she fantasised being with him in some sexual way and he did not reciprocate and she decided it was time for him to go.

“She made, in our submission, a false allegation and was on the tiger’s back and has decided to ride it out.”

He said the officers immediate “suicide attempt” after finding out the victim had told her school counsellor about the offending was “a quick permanent solution”.

“It was not an acknowledgment of guilt, but of defeat and despair. We suggest that you should have a reasonable doubt about the guilt of the accused and find him not guilty on all of the matters.”

On September 10, the jury returned two guilty verdicts in relation to the two unlawful sexual intercourse charges.

They did, however, find him not guilty of the indecent assault charge.

The police officer will return to court in November ahead of sentencing submissions later in the year.

Originally published as Former SA Police officer found guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse with his stepdaughter