Sydney window cleaner 'sexually assaulted' seven-year-old girl at her home
A window cleaner allegedly sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl as he worked at her family's house on Sydney's north shore.
The child kept the secret for five years until she overheard her mother talking about hiring a cleaner to return to the Hunter's Hill home.
The Downing Centre District Court heard on Wednesday how the little girl went around to the back of the house to watch workman Gregory John Vagg clean the pool windows, while her mother was in the kitchen, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Mr Vagg, 58, allegedly asked the girl if she wanted to help him.
When she said “yes”, the girl, now 12 years old, said Mr Vagg lifted her up in the air, pulled up her skirt and sexually assaulted her while she held a sponge in her hand.
He allegedly assaulted her again when he moved to the side windows, the victim said.
The girl said she later “helped” Mr Vagg clean her cubby house windows.
Crown prosecutor Gina O'Rourke, SC, told the court Mr Vagg allegedly put his hands underneath the girl’s skirt and digitally penetrated her on two occasions, in 2010.
"I don't want that window cleaner to come back, I don't like him and I don't want him to come back here," the girl told her mother five years later.
"He put his hand in my pants and touched my wee," she said.
The victim did not tell anyone about the alleged attack earlier because she was “too scared," Ms O'Rourke told the court.
"When I was little I thought it wasn't really like a big deal," the girl told police.
Mr Vagg pleaded not guilty to two sexual assault charges.
His defence lawyer Alan Conwell confirmed Mr Vagg had cleaned windows at the Hunters Hill property but denied a sexual assault.
"The defence case is really this: There is a question mark over whether [the victim] was sexually assaulted by any person however even if she was sexually assaulted by a workman it was not the accused Mr Vagg," Mr Conwell said.
Her mother only employed Mr Vagg on the one occasion, for some hours, using another cleaner in February 2015 when the girl was at school, the prosecutor said.
The trial continues.
