‘Secrets’: Glenorchy child care worker on trial for alleged sexual abuse of four-year-old girl

“He broke the rules”: Video evidence from a four-year-old girl has been played to a Supreme Court jury, as the trial of a Glenorchy child care worker accused of child sexual abuse gets under way.

Picture: iStock

A FORMER Glenorchy child care worker is standing trial over allegations he sexually abused a four-year-old girl in his care.

The man in his early 20s, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies he abused the girl by kissing her mouth, touching or kissing her vagina in the bathroom, and taking indecent photos of her on the toilet.

Prosecutors claim the abuse unfolded between July and October 2020.

The man has pleaded not guilty to one count of persistent sexual abuse of a child.

In the Supreme Court of Tasmania on Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Avery said while the little girl attended the Glenorchy childcare centre, there were times she was alone with the man.

“(He) would pay (the girl) special attention, spend more time with her than the other children, and engage physically with her, allowing her to sit on his lap, and carrying her around,” she said.

Ms Avery said it was alleged that while in a storeroom, the man exposed his penis to the girl and asked her to touch it, and that another childcare worker witnessed one of the occasions where he kissed her mouth.

She said on two separate occasions, the man photographed the girl while she was in the toilet, with the photographs showing her vagina and her bare chest.

“(The man) denies that most of the sexual conduct took place,” she said.

The prosecutor said the girl’s disclosures about the sexual abuse came over the course of a number of conversations with police and her parents, and after going through a body safety book called “My Body My Rules”.

She said the girl revealed the man had kissed her, touched and kissed her “on the bits”, and that “they touched tongues”.

Ms Avery said the girl’s evidence, pre-recorded in two interviews with police, was “incredibly reliable”.

In her video evidence played to the jury, the little girl told a police officer she had “secrets” about the man, that he had “made me touch” and “he broke the rules”.

The little girl drew on a picture where the man had made her touch, said “he kissed me three times”, and that he “kissed my bits”.

The girl said they were in the toilet when “we touched tongues”, and that the man had told her what had happened were “secrets”.

Ms Avery told the jury while the man denied the allegations, “you cannot accept” what he said.

She said in contrast, the girl’s evidence, pre-recorded in three interviews with police, was “incredibly reliable”.

The trial, before Justice Helen Wood, is expected to run for six to seven days.

A number of witnesses will be called to give evidence, including the girl’s parents and the man’s childcare colleagues.

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