Emily Woods
A man has been committed to stand trial for the rape of a grandmother more than 40 years ago, but he has been cleared of charges over an alleged second rape of the same woman 21 months earlier, due to insufficient evidence.
Michael Francis Martin, 70, had initially been charged with seven offences over two alleged sex attacks in the early 1980s.
He faced Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday and was committed to stand trial on three charges over the alleged 1983 rape of grandmother Jessie Grace Lauder.
DNA evidence from the scene was found of sufficient weight for a jury to decide whether he was guilty or not guilty of those offences, allegedly committed on July 6, 1983, at Lauder’s Newport home, in Melbourne’s inner west.
Martin denies all offending and was asked to stand as he pleaded not guilty to each of the three charges.
He had also been accused of four charges over a 1981 alleged attack on Lauder, then aged 82, with the prosecution relying on coincidences and similarities between the two events as they lacked DNA evidence.
Martin had been charged with offences including intent to commit assault with an offensive weapon and aggravated sexual assault.
Prosecutors alleged 13 factors pointed to his being the offender in both rapes, including that each incident occurred at the same place, against the same person and around a similar time.
The Crown argued the circumstances were similar as they said Lauder was told to lie on the floor on each occasion, remove her clothing and had been asked not to call police.
Martin’s defence team submitted six features were dissimilar between the two events, including use of a weapon, demands for Lauder to be quiet and the taking of money.
Magistrate Rohan Lawrence said the offending was “most serious and certainly traumatic” but found the prosecution’s features were common across “many instances of sexual offending by an intruder”.
“I do not believe there is a reasonable possibility that the Crown would be permitted to rely on coincidence reasoning to argue that the accused was responsible for the first offending,” he said.
“Accordingly, I will discharge Mr Martin on charges one to four.”
He said all of the offending allegedly committed against Lauder was “reprehensible”.
However, it was not committed in a way that would provide the prosecution with a “strong argument” that the two alleged attacks were perpetrated by the same person, Lawrence said.
Additionally, Lauder cannot be called as a witness as she died in 1993.
Martin was granted bail and will face the County Court for a directions hearing on March 18.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
AAP
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