A Northern Territory court has been informed that the minor who accused a police officer of rape allegedly gave his or her consent to having sex.
Senior Sergeant Patrick Carson, 39, has entered a not guilty plea to twice raping the woman in Darwin in 2020 while she was 19 years old.
The married officer, according to the Crown, preyed on a young woman who was gullible and had just recently arrived in the Top End by using his position as a father figure.
However, the woman had given her assent to Mr. Carson’s advances and behavior, according to the evidence, Ms. Chalmers, Mr. Carson’s attorney, told the jury on Tuesday.
She even says “OK, OK, OK” in her police account from August 25. In her final presentation to the Supreme Court in Darwin, Ms. Chalmers said, “She OKs this thing right through to the keeper.”
When asking her, “Is this OK,” Mr. Carson She may ask, “Is this okay?” or something similar, and nods throughout the police interrogation.
Even if the jury believed the lady’s account of what happened—that “she didn’t feel like doing these things”—it couldn’t be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Carson knew this or acted criminally carelessly in light of it because the woman was saying, “OK, OK, OK,” according to Ms. Chalmers.
The woman’s “evidence didn’t add up and made no sense,” the woman claimed.
“There’s no way that woman would describe the ordeal she describes in her police interview, which I might remind you includes being frozen in fear and having the entirety of her clothing removed, without her consent, and (raped),” Ms. Chalmers said. Instead, she would have written “maybe it was just accident” in a text message to her friend that same afternoon.
The woman and Mr. Carson met at an exercise group and over the course of several months, formed a close relationship, according to prior testimony presented in the court, which was closed to the public for the majority of the 10-day trial.
Prosecutor Marty Aust stated in his opening statement that the victim “felt cherished, valued, and special” and that Mr. Carson was able to exert control over several elements of her life before sexually exploiting her in the end.
After massaging each other on his patio, it led to the two of them being left alone at the house Mr. Carson shared with his wife and children. It is then that he is accused of raping the woman.
The second alleged assault is said to have taken place around six weeks later on a couch at a friend’s house. Mr. Carson is accused of forcingly touching the victim during this incident.
The victim continued her contact with Mr. Carson after the alleged rapes, Ms. Chalmers recalled to the jury.
Nobody works out with the rapist the following day. Nobody continues to communicate secretly with their rapist. Nobody keeps sending them love hearts anymore. She declared, “It just doesn’t hold water.”
You can’t believe a word this woman says, to be honest. It really doesn’t make sense.
Mr. Aust had earlier claimed that Mr. Carson had cultivated an adolescent girl who was “shy, lacking in confidence, socially inadequate, immature with few friends, and who has difficulty making good decisions in stressful situations.”
In his concluding remarks, Mr. Carson remarked that she was the ideal prey.
Justice Stephen Southwood continues the trial by briefing the jury before it begins deliberations.