Jury considers verdict in alleged child rape case

Wednesday 20 December 2017

The jury has retired to consider its verdict in the case against a 78-year-old man accused of 27 offences of sexual abuse - including 6 counts of rape – involving two young girls.

Lester Charles Quenault denies the charges. He is accused of assaulting the girls in his car, garage and at a stable in the 1970’s.

During summing up, Prosecution Advocate Simon Thomas told the jury that one of the woman accusing Mr Quenault of sexual abuse had tried to move on, but it was only because in September 2015 she had mentioned it to an advocate, who alerted the police, that it has come to light.

Advocate Thomas said, “…it wasn’t the case that she was banging down the police door. They contacted her.”

The Jury heard that during the police interview, the woman had remembered another girl’s name who had told her that he had just tried to have sex with her. The police contacted this woman, whose name was put forward, and visited her at home. When they said the name of the location of the alleged assaults, Advocate Thomas said, “…she broke down almost immediately and told police that Mr Quenault had tried to have sex with her.”

The Prosecution said, “…they haven’t spoken about it, they had come to the police entirely separately. (…) you have three witnesses coming together independently – not because they had put their heads together but because of that conversation that happened with that advocate in September 2015. It’s beyond coincidence.”

When talking about one of the woman’s evidence during the trial, Advocate Thomas said, “…she recalls the dirty smell. When she complained or resisted she was told ‘sshh.’ (…) she remembers the car where the serious rape incidents happened. She felt sick. She remembered the smell of the car, the smell of him. The pain which she described was like having a knife stuck in her. Not being able to look at him, just looking out of the car when he drove her home afterwards.”

Alluding to the 40 year gap between the alleged sexual assaults and the police interviews, he said,“…a true account isn’t always consistent, and an inconsistent account isn’t always untrue.

“….you may ask why they kept going back to the (stables). Simply to indulge their passion for horses. You are dealing with the choices and actions of young girls, not choices and actions of adults. Girls who will do anything – literally anything to ride horses.”

Defence Advocate Mike Preston summed up his case saying, “…making a false and wicked allegation is impossible to understand. How can anybody be so cruel? But we know false allegations do happen (…) for reasons we don’t understand.

“…making an allegation is not enough, it has to be proven and stand up to scrutiny.”

Advocate Preston asked the jury to, “…imagine for a moment you were accused of something and you knew you didn’t do it, (…) all you can say is I didn’t do it.

“…Lester Quenault denies these offences, and he has no idea and can only summarise why he’s been accused. He doesn’t believe he’s ever met one of the women, and the last time he saw the other was many years ago. He doesn’t know what has happened to her, in her life, over the years.

“…he can only suggest that they are driven by a desire for money as we know one of the women has taken a compensation form and been in touch with the police for help to fill out the form. The other woman also took home a compensation form. The defence suggests to you that money and compensation is a factor in this case."

Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith directed the jury of 5 men and 6 women to find Mr Quenault not guilty for five of the 27 offences, due to changes in witness accounts.

The jury has retired and are due to give their verdict soon.