A 70-year-old man faces trial for the rape of a grandmother greater than 40 years in the past, after a courtroom cleared him of a second alleged assault on the identical girl attributable to lack of proof.
Courtroom Resolution in Melbourne
Michael Francis Martin appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Courtroom, the place authorities dedicated him to face trial on three fees associated to the 1983 sexual assault of Jessie Grace Lauder at her house in Newport, Melbourne’s inside west. The incident allegedly occurred on July 6, 1983.
DNA proof recovered from the scene offers enough grounds for a jury to find out guilt or innocence on these fees. Martin pleaded not responsible to all three counts and denies any involvement.
Earlier Alleged Assault Dismissed
Prosecutors initially charged Martin with seven offenses spanning two incidents within the early Nineteen Eighties. 4 fees stemmed from an alleged 1981 assault on Lauder, who was 82 on the time. With out DNA proof, the case relied on similarities between the occasions, resembling the placement, sufferer, timing, and circumstances—together with directions for Lauder to lie on the ground, take away clothes, and keep away from calling police.
Prosecutors highlighted 13 matching elements linking Martin to each assaults. Nevertheless, the protection identified six key variations, together with using a weapon, calls for for silence, and theft of cash within the earlier incident.
Justice of the Peace’s Ruling
Justice of the Peace Rohan Lawrence described the alleged offenses as “most critical and definitely traumatic” however famous that the prosecution’s similarities seem in “many situations of sexual offending by an intruder.”
“I don’t consider there’s a cheap risk that the Crown could be permitted to depend on coincidence reasoning to argue that the accused was answerable for the primary offending,” Lawrence acknowledged. He discharged Martin on the 4 1981 fees, including that whereas all alleged acts had been “reprehensible,” they didn’t strongly join the 2 occasions.
Lauder handed away in 1993 and can’t testify.
Subsequent Steps
The courtroom granted Martin bail. He’ll seem within the County Courtroom for a instructions listening to on March 18.
