Teenager who accused foster dad of rape had ‘parenting issues’, Toowoomba court told

The man is accused by his then foster daughter of maintaining a sexual relationship with her and rape.

A teenager who accused her foster father of raping her had caused parenting issues for both of her foster parents, a Toowoomba court has been told.

The now adult teenager has accused her foster father of having sex, or trying to have sex, with her on a number of occasions in her bedroom when she was aged 11 and 12 and that her foster father filmed her from outside her bedroom window when she was 14 and dressed in her underwear.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to maintaining a sexual relationship with a child, two counts of rape and one of indecent treatment of a child under 16 under care.

The final witness called to the two-day trial was the accused man’s wife who told the Toowoomba District Court she and her husband had had “parenting issues” with the girl and her sister over the relevant time.

The court has heard the man explained filming the girl from outside her bedroom window because she was talking with someone on the internet while touching herself.

The trial continues in the Toowoomba District Court.

He claimed he had filmed her in order to confront her about it but had “chickened out”.

The man’s wife told the court she and her husband had been told the girl was putting things up on the internet but when confronted with that the girl denied putting anything up.

However, she had come to her foster parents about one issue.

“(She) was being threatened by a stranger on the internet that had found a topless photo of her and was threatening that if she didn’t send him a full nude he would share that photo with members of staff at her school,” she said.

She said the issue had been addressed by blocking and deleting and that the couple had “discussed thoroughly” with their foster daughter to be careful of what she put up on the internet.

The woman said the couple suspected the complainant was staying up all night on her social media devices in her bedroom but she denied that.

The couple also suspected the girl and her sister were sneaking out of the house late at night.

She said on one occasion a boy knocked on the door at 11pm and asked for the girl and when she went to check on her foster daughter in her room, she wasn’t there.

The woman said they had tried taking their foster children’s devices off them at bedtime but that been met with aggressive defiance.

Under cross examination by defence counsel David Jones KC, the woman said she had never seen any unexplained injuries on the child nor had she ever seen the girl trying to avoid her foster father.

The jury is expected to retire to consider a verdict on Wednesday following closing addresses by counsel and summing up by Judge Dennis Lynch KC.