A man charged with the alleged sexual assault of a five-year-old girl will go to trial in district court after a magistrate ruled on Friday that there was enough evidence for a jury to consider.
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The man was charged with sexual intercourse with a child and indecent assault of a person aged under 16, in relation to an incident that allegedly took place in the toilet block at Elephant Park in November 2016.
The defendant has previously pleaded not guilty to the charges.
On Friday a committal hearing was held in Orange Local Court to go over the proposed evidence to determine whether there was enough for a jury to find the alleged offender guilty.
A non-publication order is in place banning the identification of both the defendant and the alleged victim.
The committal hearing was brought before magistrate David Day due to issues the defence raised with the prosecution case.
The defence had an issue with the witness’ identification of the alleged offender at the scene and whether she could recognise him based on the layout of the park and how often she had seen him.
She was cross-examined in court with the defence solicitor questioning her about whether she could recognise him based on attending the same schools at least 22 years ago.
“The crucial issues as I see them are the identification of the accused, the means of identification and the [coroberating] material in support of identification,” Mr Day said.
“The second issue is the statement by the [child] in written form.
“In the case of the witness, she’s accepted as someone who could identify the accused, there are a lot of reasons why she can.”
Mr Day said from the evidence and submissions presented on Friday, he had the view that there were reasonable prospects of a conviction.
“I do consider that a jury, reasonably instructed, could convict [him],” Mr Day said.
The man was released on bail in July 2017 but has since gone back into custody.
A bail application was not made on Friday and he was formerly refused bail.
The matter will be mentioned in an Orange District Court call-over in March and a trial date is yet to be determined.