Father found not guilty of inappropriately touching daughter

A Carey Park man breathed a sigh of relief after he was acquitted of inappropriately touching his biological daughter on several occasions while they lived in Broome. The 48-year-old man, who cannot be named, faced a three-day District Court trial in Bunbury, where a jury took just hours to find him not guilty of several counts of indecent dealing with a lineal relative aged under 16. It was alleged the man, his daughter and his then-partner lived in a Cable Beach unit between 2011 and 2013, where his daughter alleged he touched her inappropriately multiple times until he moved out of the unit. It was understood the daughter was aged between five and seven at the time of the alleged offend-ing. The man’s daughter alleged in a police interview her father “liked to touch her”, and named several occasions when she was allegedly touched while she was having a shower and while they watched television on a mattress together in the living room, and she was allegedly told to look at him while he showered. In evidence, the daughter alleged the touching would only happen in the one location despite often visiting her father at another property after he separated from her mother. However, the girl could not recall exactly where she was touched or the surrounding details of each incident, save for one incident that was alleged to have occurred after her parents had an argu-ment that prompted a call to po-lice. While it was found police had been called to the unit on a number of occasions for alleged domestic violence, investigating officer Det-Sen. Const. Deborah Foxton told the court no charges had been laid as a result of those calls. In a police interview conducted with the man, he repeatedly said he would “never, ever touch my daughter in that way”. “I’ve never had indecent dealings with my daughter,” he said. “It is not something that goes through my mind.”