Queensland man Rick Thorburn will face a judge-only trial for his charge of raping a girl aged under 12.
Create a free account to read this article
or signup to continue reading
Thorburn is accused of raping a girl aged under 12 while working at a daycare centre south of Brisbane.
Earlier this month Thorburn was also committed to the Beenleigh District Court on other charges which included attempting to rape another girl aged under 12, as well as nine indecent treatment charges allegedly relating to incidents between July 2015 to April 2016.
On Tuesday prosecutors had the case adjourned to May 7 to give them time to organise all offences into one indictment.
In a hearing in August last year Thorburn's lawyers argued he would not be able to get a fair trial with a jury for the daycare rape allegations, and so he should face a judge-only trial.
Prosecutors submitted juries should be able to focus on the facts of the trial to form a verdict.
They conceded that moving the trial to the Brisbane District Court could "dilute" the pool of potentially compromised jurors.
The judge who heard the matter at the time reserved their decision.
On Tuesday Beenleigh court registry staff confirmed Thorburn has been granted a judge-only trial.
A trial date has not been set.
Australian Associated Press
