Judges order third trial of father over abuse allegations
- Date
- September 27, 2013
- Read later
Mark Russell
At his first trial in March 2011, the father of four was found guilty of sexually assaulting his two older daughters while his wife was away at weekend meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses or out shopping. He was jailed for nine years and three months with a non-parole period of seven years and three months.
One of the key witnesses at the trial had been his youngest daughter, 15, who claimed she frequently saw her oldest sister going into their father's bedroom. But shortly after the trial, the girl told police she had lied. She claimed her older sisters had pressured her to make a statement to support their accounts. The girl told police her sisters had admitted to her that their allegations were "a set-up" for the purpose of getting money. The teenager was interviewed by police on April 8, 2011, and admitted perjury but no charges were laid against her. In the interview, she alleged her sisters had threatened to kill her if she did not support them.
A new trial was ordered after the father appealed and the prosecution did not call the 15-year-old at his second trial in the Victorian County Court. But the police interview was played to the jury and tendered as part of the prosecution's case. The Crown argued that the 15-year-old was not a witness of truth and her recantation was the result of collusion with her parents. The teenager was called as a defence witness for her father, as was her mother. The father was found guilty of of one count of maintaining a sexual relationship with a child under the age of 16, five counts of incest, two of indecent assault and three of an indecent act with a child under 16. He was found to have abused his eldest daughter, now aged 20, from when she was between 12 and 17, and his second eldest daughter, now aged 19, when she was 16. He was jailed after the second trial in March last year for 12 years and four months with a non-parole period of nine years. The father again appealed against his conviction and sentence and on Friday, Justices Robert Redlich, Phillip Priest and Paul Coghlan in the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial after finding there had been a miscarriage of justice at the second trial. In their judgment, Justice Priest said it was the prosecution case that all the offending occurred in the family home, which the father shared with his wife, three daughters and a younger son, on a property south-east of Melbourne. "The appellant's (father's) offending occurred when his wife was away from the house, possibly working at the office, at weekend meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses or when out shopping," the judge said. The father's eldest daughter moved out of home in March 2010 to live with her boyfriend's family. Justice Priest said the boyfriend gave evidence of overhearing a phone call between the girl and her father in January 2010.
The father asked the daughter if she had slept with her boyfriend.
When she said she had, her father asked her if her boyfriend was as good as he was. One June 29, 2010, the eldest daughter met her father at a coffee shop and recorded a conversation in which her father said: "What we had was consensual". The judges said they had decided to quash the convictions and order a retrial after finding the sentencing judge had erred in law when giving her directions to the jury and had not been entitled to increase the jail sentence handed down at the first trial.