Mario Didulica’s appeal bid quashed by Supreme Court

A disgraced ex-cop who sexually abused a teenager has been refused leave to appeal his sentence.

Mario Didulica in 2010.

An ex-Geelong cop who sexually abused a teenage girl has had his appeal bid quashed.

Mario Simon Didulica was sentenced to three years’ jail in June this year for offences in 2010.

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to grant leave to appeal the 52-year-old’s sentence.

Earlier this year, a jury found Didulica guilty of engaging in an indecent act with a child, attempted sexual penetration and sexual penetration.

Didulica was arrested by Interpol officers in October 2018 after he moved to Croatia and tried to cross the Bosnian border to attend a funeral.

The County Court was told Didulica was a serving police officer when he met the girl more than a decade ago, quickly developing an “inappropriate infatuation” with her.

Before the girl’s parents became suspicious and alerted authorities, the pair exchanged more than 30,000 text messages in a five-month period across the multiple phones and SIM cards he provided to hide their relationship.

At the time Didulica gave the young girl a passport application and promised to whisk her away to France.

The court was told some of his colleagues were aware he was having an extramarital affair and he had shown them a picture of the girl.

He had claimed she was older than she was and he was waiting for her to turn 18.

In a victim impact statement, the girl said she had been forced to live with the shame of being called a “homewrecker”.

Didulica’s lawyer Georgina Connelly had argued that a conviction on the charge of sexual penetration should be quashed and a verdict of acquittal entered due to questions surrounding the legitimacy of his extradition from Croatia and the dates surrounding his offending.

She also said jury verdicts on the charges of sexual penetration were unreasonable and could not be supported by the evidence due to the questions surrounding the dates of the offences.

She said the trial was conducted on the basis that the dates alleged in the charges of oral penetration were facts.

“Hence, the prosecution accepted that the jury could not convict unless satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the offences alleged occurred within the dates specified in the indictment,” Ms Connelly said.

Justice Phillip Priest, Justice Lesley Taylor and Justice Robert Osborn said they did not accept Ms Connelly’s submissions.

In their judgement, Justices Priest, Taylor and Osborn said it was “abundantly clear” that Didulica had been extradited on the basis he had committed the offence in May 2010.

“There can be no doubt that, at the time that they sought the applicant’s extradition, police were aware only of one specific act of lingual-vaginal penetration,” it said.

“It is thus beyond argument that the offence upon which the applicant was surrendered was an offence involving an act of lingual-vaginal penetration, which was alleged to have occurred between 1 and 31 May 2010.”

Justices Priest, Taylor and Osborn said the application for leave to appeal against conviction must be refused.

Didulica will be eligible for parole in April next year.

Originally published as Mario Didulica’s appeal bid quashed by Supreme Court