A defence barrister says his client is an innocent man following the commencement of a child sex trial at Armidale.
The Northern Daily Leader reports Barrister Michael Fantin told the jury his client, who cannot be legally named, was innocent when he was charged, he is innocent now and he will remain innocent until you find him so.
The accused is charged with having sex with a girl on three occasions when she was aged under 12, between 2017 and 2021 with the complainant raising the incidents with her mother in 2024 saying the alleged had intercourse with her in a lounge room, stressing she had resisted, but the man had straddled her, pulled her hair and constrained her hands.
Mr Fantin says the allegations were emotive and upsetting, but urged jurors to “listen and hear all the evidence but Crown prosecutor SP Oliver urged the jurors to rely on statements given to family and police earlier in 2024 that sex had occurred on all three occasions.
The Trial continues
