The man was originally convicted in the Griffith District Court in 2024. Photo: Oliver Jacques.
CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses child sexual assault.
A man convicted of sexually abusing his younger sister when he was a teenager at their Leeton home has lost his appeal against his convictions.
The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal this week dismissed the man’s appeal, ruling a jury was entitled to find him guilty of three sexual assault offences and one assault offence despite acquitting him of eight other charges.
According to the published judgment, the initial allegations spanned from late 2013 to early 2015, but the specific offences he was convicted of happened between late 2014 and early 2015 while the family lived in Leeton, having moved from a small nearby town.
The court heard the offender was 14 or 15 at the time and his sister was 11. The offender’s name cannot be published because it may identify the child victim, whose identity is protected by law. He was known as “KB” in the published judgment.
The court heard that on one occasion KB raped his sister in a shed while holding a kitchen steak knife to her neck, while calling her a “fat slut” and a “whore”.
Following a trial in Griffith District Court in 2024, a jury found the man guilty of three counts of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He was found not guilty of eight earlier charges.
He was handed a community correction order and did not go to jail.
On appeal, the man argued the guilty verdicts were inconsistent with the acquittals and said the evidence did not support the convictions. He argued that if the jury had a reasonable doubt about his sister’s credibility regarding the eight offences he was found not guilty of, it would not have been possible for the jury to be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt of the applicant’s guilt for the remaining counts.
He also said his sister was wrong about how old she was when the family moved to Leeton, claiming this further undermined her credibility.
The Court of Criminal Appeal rejected those arguments.
The judges found there was a logical explanation for the mixed verdicts. They said the jury could reasonably have had doubts about when the earlier alleged offences occurred while still being satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the later offences had taken place after the offender turned 14.
The court also found the guilty verdicts were supported by the evidence and ruled there was no reason to overturn the convictions.
“In my opinion, the jury was well placed to assess the complainant’s credibility, in light of the issues raised by the applicant’s trial counsel. The jury was entitled to accept the complainant’s evidence as truthful, accurate and credible,” the published decision states.
The offender had originally been sentenced in April 2025 to community correction orders. He did not challenge that sentence in the appeal.
If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available from Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call triple zero.
If you have been affected by sexual violence, or someone you know has, you can report it to police by attending a police station or phoning 131 444.
