A jury will decide on Friday whether a man raped and sexually abused his young sisters on Tasmania’s East Coast.
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The sisters have accused their half-brother of starting a sexual relationship with them when they were about 4, 7 and 14.
All three alleged victims have given evidence during a trial in the Launceston Supreme Court this week, accusing the man of multiple acts including rape and indecent assault.
The allegations date back to 2000, when the accused was about 18-years-old – but it was not reported to police until 2011, more than a decade after the abuse allegedly began.
The women shared details of how the man allegedly came into their bedrooms, told them to be quiet and indecently assaulted them.
They have accused him of forcing them to touch his penis, ejaculating over them and raping them vaginally and anally – each sister separately and on different occasions.
The man has pleaded not guilty to three counts of maintaining a sexual relationship with a person under the age of 17 – his defence lawyer James Oxley arguing the sisters’ fabricated their stories.
Mr Oxley said his client was the “black sheep” of the family.
But on Thursday, Crown prosecutor Peter Sherriff delivered his closing address and urged the jury to believe the alleged victims’ stories and to find the man guilty on all three counts.
“The only motive here, was to tell the truth,” he said.
“If this is a design to get rid of him … why wait until [2011]. The reason is, it’s not a fabrication, it genuinely happened.”
In his own closing address, Mr Oxley said the sisters’ evidence was flawed – pointing out that the women were unsure about how old they were when some of the alleged incidents took place.
“Lies have been inserted as small, isolated chunks of time,” he said.
Mr Oxley said the state was “cherry picking” evidence by telling the jury to forgive the women for a lack of memory due to the time that had passed since the alleged abuse.
He said the women were unable to corroborate their stories with one another because they did not tell each other, or anybody else, what allegedly happened to them.
Mr Oxley said there was a “very real possibility of concoction”.
The trial before Justice Robert Pearce will continue on Friday with the jury expected to begin its deliberations.