QLD Re-try a Sexual Abuse Offender under Criminal Law?

[MichaelMichael]

Hi there I'm enquiring for a close friend of mine who was sexually abused and raped by her stepfather from age 3 till 12....He wasn't violent or forceful. He built a sexual relationship with her over these years and because it started at such a young age she knew no different...When she eventually told her mother, finally realising it was wrong, her mother was somehow convinced by him that she had made the whole thing up for attention and her mother made her confess on tape that she had lied....

It went to court and under duress she told the court that the allegations were untrue. She was 12 and scared. The offender is a highly ranked martial arts expert. He was granted some kind of immunity from the case being retried because she was convinced by her mother and made to make a false confession on tape stating that she had lied to get attention. She believes this to be the case anyway as she was 12 or 13 when all this happened. She is now 36 and still has mental scaring and no closure that he was never bought to justice for his crimes.

Obviously my question is, is it possible she can reopen the case and have him bought to justice under Criminal Law?

 

[Arche]

Hi Michael
The answer to this really depends on what the stepfather was charged with originally, and whether he was in fact acquitted of the original charges. With some exceptions, you cannot be retried for an offence of which you have been acquitted.

However, at least in NSW, depending on what happened, how long it went on for, etc, offences such as these might be charged as one or two specific offences on particular dates (or sometimes a range of dates) rather than charging over every single incident. There is no blanket charge of sexual assault - it must be incident and date specific. Your friend would have to know what the stepfather was charged with because if there were other incidents that he was not charged with, and therefore not acquitted, he might be able to be charged with them now. By that I mean he may have been charged with a and b offences on x and y dates, but there might be another incident on another date that he was not charged with.

If your friend wants to do anything further she will need to go to the Police because it would be up to them to consider the evidence and the circumstances generally before laying further charges. Before going to the Police she might want to visit a legal centre or a solicitor to get advice so that she has a better idea of what she can do and what might happen. A solicitor might also be able to help get the information she needs about the first charges.

By the way, while I think I know what your are trying to say, I am not sure I agree that the r**e of a three year old can ever not be "violent" or "forceful". And he didn't "build a sexual relationship": he sexually assaulted her.

 

[MichaelMichael]

Absolutely 100% agree with you on the fact he repeatedly sexually assulted her on a daily basis and the manipulation and violation she has received is sickening...They were more her words than mine as she described it because as a 3 year old, he groomed her and gained her trust....Don't for a second think I am watering down the situation ...If it were up to me this creature would be tied to a post so other Fathers could line up and do what they like to him until he finally died....

That aside, I also greatly appreciate your detailed reply and I will do my best to get some more detail ...I'm pretty sure she has alot of detail written down but I think you're right ....it will take a lawyer to get older case records and basically work on finding out what charges were bought against him the first time...thanks again for your help