Historic rape trial begins in Bendigo 49 years after alleged attack
A New South Wales man is standing trial for the alleged rape of a then 16-year-old girl in Rochester in 1967 after the child conceived as a result of the alleged assault told his birth mother to report the matter to police.
The accused, 69-year-old, John Thomas O'Connell from Moama, New South Wales, has only recently been charged after the son conceived through the alleged rape tracked down his birth mother and convinced her to go to the police, according to the Bendigo Advertiser.
The son was given up for adoption following the alleged rape and had no contact with his birth mother until he contacted her in 2000, according to online reports.
When the pair reunited it’s reported that the mother told her birth son the story of his conception.
Opening remarks in the historical rape trial were heard in Bendigo County Court yesterday.
The Bendigo Advertiser reported the court heard the woman gave birth to her son as a result of the one-time encounter with the accused.
DNA evidence proving O’Connell is the father was reportedly also presented.
In October 2013, the alleged victim, her son and O’Connell provided DNA samples as part of the police investigation, which proved the sexual encounter took place.
O'Connell has pleaded not guilty to the alleged rape.
The prosecution told the court that the alleged victim didn’t consent to the attack.
They also stated that the accused, who was reportedly aged 20-years-old at the time, allegedly dragged the then 16-year-old victim into nearby bushland and eventually raped her, according to the Bendigo Advertiser.
Crown Prosecutor Timothy Hoare told the court that the 16-year-old was walking in the evening with a friend when the accused and another man approached the pair in a car on the Campaspe Bridge.
The two girls reportedly joined the men in the vehicle where the four drove to Rochester where they stopped when the victim told the men they were driving in the wrong direction.
Hoare then alleged that O’Connell dragged the 16-year-old from the car and raped her a mere 100 metre away from the vehicle, according to the Bendigo Advertiser.
According to reports the alleged victim wasn’t aware she was pregnant until five months later when she underwent a medical assessment while living in a convent.
Initially she denied having sexual intercourse and when nuns took her to police their response was reportedly “negative” and the matter was taken no further.
Defence counsel Michael Pena-Rees said O’Connell’s paternity was not in dispute.
“It is a simple matter of consent,” he reportedly told the jury.
The trial continues is set to continue.
News break – February 25
