A 63-year-old Terang man has been cleared of three charges of touching a 14-year-old girl on the breast while allowing her to drive without a licence.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Graham Finn, of Dow Street, had pleaded not guilty to three charges of committing an indecent act between September, 2013, and January, 2014.
He pleaded guilty to three charges of allowing the girl to drive while unlicensed.
After a two-day trial in Warrnambool Magistrates Court, Magistrate Peter Mellas said he was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Finn had committed the most serious offences.
Mr Mellas said Mr Finn had got to know the victim’s family through her grandmother.
Mr Finn had driven the girl to Geelong to visit her grandmother, who was living there while receiving cancer treatment. Mr Mellas said the prosecution claimed the alleged indecent acts had arisen during a relationship in which Mr Finn had demonstrated an indecent interest in the girl.
He said the prosecution alleged Mr Finn had commented about the victim’s physical maturity, had allowed her to drive at the age of 13-14 years old and had bought her alcohol and gifts.
However, Mr Mellas said much of Mr Finn’s behaviour had occurred out in the open, and other family members had been aware that he had allowed the girl to drive and had given her gifts and alcohol.
He was also not satisfied that Mr Finn’s delivery of a bunch of videos that included a pornographic DVD to the girl’s home was part of any indecent relationship.
Mr Mellas said the girl had not been asked to view the DVD and the bag of videos and the DVD could have been found by anyone at the house.
He said the girl’s evidence was at times vague and her demonstration of her driving manner indicated Mr Finn would have had to reach under or over her arm to reach her breast, an action of which the girl had no recollection.
“There was some unreality of what she said occurred,” Mr Mellas said. Mr Finn told the court he was still grieving over the death of his wife in 2011 and had found the victim’s company “very refreshing.”
He said he did not know why he had let the victim drive his car but regretted doing so.
On the three charges of allowing an unlicensed person to drive, Mr Mellas said Mr Finn had committed “a significant error of judgement”.
He placed Mr Finn on a good behaviour bond for 12 months.
