A court has declared a young man innocent of charges of corrupting an underage girl at Splash and Fun Waterpark, after noting that the girl’s version of events did not add up.
The court, presided by Magistrate Charmaine Galea heard how the man, referred to only as AA, was accused of touching young girl’s private parts while she was swimming with her friend in August last year.
The girl had testified that there weren’t many people using the Lazy River ride at the time of the assault and remembered the accused and a friend of his had been looking at her and giggling amongst themselves.
Whilst she had been on the rubber ring in a darkened tunnel which forms part of the Lazy River ride, she became separated from her friend’s ring due to the efforts of three youths who had been trying to isolate the girl. One youth had pushed her on to the accused, who then repeatedly touched her private parts from underwater.
She said she had told him to leave her alone or she would scream, but this did not dissuade the accused. She had eventually told her friend when they emerged from the water, saying that she was so frightened that she was shaking.
Her friend, however said that whilst the victim had been trembling slightly, they had subsequently “laughed it off” and continued with their day, not wanting to let the actions of the men spoil their fun.
Whilst searching for a phone to contact the victim’s mother and the police, the girls claimed to have encountered the accused and his friends again, alleging that they were then subjected to verbal harassment and flirtatious gestures. The victim said that she then suffered a panic attack and the manager of the facility had spoken to the youths who, she said, had admitted to the sexual assault.
The water park’s managing director however had testified that the accused had insisted that he had only touched the girl’s thigh with his toe.
The accused, who testified in his own defence, saying that he had been unaware of anything untoward having occurred until he and his brother were summoned to the director’s office some time after 2pm.
The court noted that it was “slightly odd” that a 14 year old girl who said she had suffered a sexual assault would choose to continue spending the rest of the day at the resort, further noting that the girl had testified to not phoning her mother earlier as she and her friend wanted to enjoy their day out.
It also found it hard to believe that the accused could have repeatedly touched her private parts without her screaming for help. Likewise the testimony of the girl’s friend who said that they had subsequently “laughed off the whole incident,” did not appear to support the girl’s allegations.
It also noted that whilst one of the girls identified the accused, the victim was not certain whether it was him and not one of his companions, whose denial of having touched any of the girls was not contested by the prosecution.
Faced with two versions of events in direct conflict with each other the court held that the accusations had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt and discharged the accused.