Indecent assault on boy alleged

Press, 12 August 1989, Page 12

Indecent assault on boy alleged

A nine-year-old boy walking his dog in a suburban park was waylaid by a man at toilets and indecently assaulted, the police alleged in the District Court yesterday. After a preliminary hearing Mrs C. M. Holmes and Mr A. L. Mclvor, Justices of the Peace, committed the defendant, aged 30, for trial by jury in the District Court on two charges of indecency. The charges were of indecently assaulting the boy and doing an indecent act on him, on April 23. The defendant, who has interim suppression of his name, was remanded in custody pending a date for his trial. His counsel, Mr Peter Egden, reserved the defence. Detective-Sergeant Richard McCaskill prosecuted. A statement from the boy, read to the court, was that while he was passing the toilets a man poked his head out and asked if the bicycle the man had was his. The boy, who had seen the man riding the bicycle a short time earlier, said it was not his. He then asked if the walkman cassette player, which he had placed on a cistern above a toilet, was his. The boy said it was not. The defendand pulled down his own track-suit trousers and handled his private parts. He then asked the boy to enter the

cubicle, but the boy said he did not wish to do so. He was grabbed by an arm and pulled into the cubicle and his pants were pulled down. The man then touched the boy’s private parts. The boy’s father said he called the police after his son arrived home and burst into tears and described what had occurred. Police officers gave evidence of apprehending the defendant in the vicinity. He carried a walkman radio and his bicycle was found at the park entrance. When questioned by Detective Richard Neale the defendant allegedly said he did not really know what went on, and that he needed help. He said he had not been himself for a long time and had been going downhill and could not control his emotions and anger. He agreed he had seen a boy in the park, and had touched his private parts. He remembered talking to the boy, but not how he came to be in the toilets. The defendant told the detective he needed a doctor, and that when his defences were down “it happens.” The detective was asked by Mr Egden in Cross-examination to describe the defendant’s demeanour that day. He said he was “a wreck... a mental wreck.”