The case was heard at the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal. Photo: Chris Olszewski/Wikimedia Commons.
CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses child sexual assault.
A former Wagga Wagga resident who was convicted of sexually assaulting his 14-year-old sister-in-law has failed to overturn his convictions, after the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal rejected his challenge.
According to the published judgement, the case involved 11 charges arising from four alleged incidents in Bankstown, Lake Tabourie and Wagga Wagga between December 1986 and December 1987.
The man, identified in the judgment only as NR, was convicted of three offences arising from the first incident in Bankstown.
He was not convicted of any of the alleged offending in Wagga Wagga or at Lake Tabourie.
The Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed his appeal in a decision handed down this month, finding the three guilty verdicts were open to the jury and that, despite some inappropriate interventions by the trial judge, they did not make the trial unfair.
The man began dating the girl’s older sister in the early 1980s and they married in 1986.
The girl stayed with the couple at various times, including at their Bankstown home and later at their home in Ashmont in Wagga.
Bankstown – three convictions
According to the published judgement, the first incident occurred on 29 December 1986, when the girl was 14.
The couple were living in Bankstown and the girl had been staying with them for several days.
Her sister left for work that morning, leaving the girl alone with the man.
The girl told the court she fell asleep on a lounge before waking to find the man’s hand up the back of her shirt.
She alleged he then put his hand inside her swimwear and digitally penetrated her.
She said he then grabbed her hand, placed it on his erect penis and moved her hand up and down.
Finally, she alleged he held her head and forced his penis into her mouth.
Those allegations became counts 1, 2 and 3.
The jury found the man guilty of all three offences.
Lake Tabourie – four charges, no convictions
The second alleged incident occurred on 31 December 1986, as the man was driving the girl home to Ulladulla after the couple had travelled to Batemans Bay.
The girl said her sister had refused to make the trip because she was unwell.
The man stopped at a rest area at Lake Tabourie, where the girl alleged he lifted her onto the bonnet of the vehicle, kissed her then sexually assaulted her.
These allegations comprised counts 4 to 7.
The jury could not reach a verdict on the four charges.
They were subsequently heard by a judge alone, who found the man not guilty on all four counts.
Wagga Wagga – four charges, no convictions
The remaining four charges arose from two alleged incidents at the couple’s Ashmont home in Wagga Wagga.
The first was alleged to have occurred sometime during 1987 and comprised counts 8 and 9.
The girl alleged she was asleep on a couch when she woke to find the man’s hands inside her pyjama shorts.
She alleged he digitally penetrated her and put his penis in her mouth.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict on counts 8 and 9.
The charges were subsequently retried before a judge alone, who found the man not guilty of both alleged offences.
The final two charges, counts 10 and 11, related to another alleged incident in Wagga Wagga later in 1987.
The girl alleged the man took her for a walk with the couple’s dogs after his wife refused to go with them.
She alleged they walked towards nearby railway tracks, where the man pushed her against a stationary train carriage, kissed her and sexually assaulted her.
The jury found the man not guilty of both charges.
The Wagga allegations later became a significant part of the evidence.
In 1990, the victim told her sister she intended to tell her about what had happened between her and the man.
The sister confronted her, asking what had happened in Wagga.
The victim subsequently referred to the alleged sexual acts during the Wagga walks with the dogs.
At first, the sister accused the victim of trying to ruin her marriage, but she later confronted her husband. He initially denied anything had happened, but she gave evidence that after several hours he eventually acknowledged that something had happened. The man denied this account.
Appeal against three convictions
The man appealed only against his three Bankstown convictions.
His lawyers argued the trial judge had intervened excessively while he was giving evidence and that the three guilty verdicts were unreasonable.
The Court of Criminal Appeal agreed that the trial judge had made three interventions that exceeded the role of the trial judge sitting with a jury in a criminal trial.
The court said the exchanges came “unnecessarily close” to creating a real danger the trial was unfair.
However, after considering the interventions in the context of the entire trial, the court concluded they did not create a miscarriage of justice.
The court also rejected the argument that the guilty verdicts were unreasonable.
It found the jury was entitled to accept the complainant’s evidence and reject the man’s denials.
The man was sentenced in December 2024 to an aggregate four years and six months’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of two years and 11 months, for the three offences on which he was convicted.
The Court of Criminal Appeal granted him leave to appeal but dismissed the appeal.
His three convictions therefore remain in place.
The victim cannot be identified. Under the Crimes Act, publishing material that identifies her or is likely to lead to her identification is an offence. The judgment therefore identifies the accused only as NR.
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