Playboy rape mum to remain behind bars

A MOTHER who dressed her nine-year-old daughter in a Playboy outfit and held her hands as she was raped by adult men has had her latest bid for freedom denied.

The woman, who cannot be named in order to protect the girl, was convicted in March 2020 of three counts of rape and one count each of maintaining a sexual relationship with a child, deprivation of liberty and indecent treatment of a child.

The conviction came after a second trial. The first had been ordered a mistrial.

When she was found guilty the mum screamed, wailed and yelled: “It’s so wrong. This didn’t even happen.”

The judge-only second trial was held before Judge David Kent in the Southport District Court in early 2020.

During the trial, the mum sat through hours of video evidence from her daughter.

The girl was 15 at the time and told the court about how she would wake with men lying on top of her, her mother occasionally holding her hands.

She was dressed in a “Playboy outfit” consisting of “bunny ears” and a black, lacy dress. The full extent of what was done to the girl is too horrific to print.

The girl said the sexual assaults would happen up to every second night from May 13, 2014, to May 14, 2015, while her father was in prison.

The court was told in 2020 that since coming forward the girl had spent time in hospital on suicide watch.

In August 2020, the mum was sentenced to 10 years’ prison.

Court of Appeal documents released last week revealed the mother appeared to fall asleep on the first day of trial while video evidence was being played.

The mother argued her conviction should be overruled because Judge Kent’s attitude towards her was “affected negatively” due to those events on the first day.

“After lunch on the first day, the trial judge noted that the (mum) had seemed to be asleep before the adjournment for lunch and the trial judge expressed concern about the appellant’s participation in the trial,” the Court of Appeal documents said.

“Apart from the (mum’s) explaining at the hearing of the appeal that she had selfmedicated on the first day of trial, there was no development of this additional ground of appeal in submissions to support an allegation of bias.”

The mum also tried to argue there were a number of inconsistencies with the evidence.

Justices Debra Mullins and Robert Mazza said in their decision that it was “not unreasonable” for a guilty verdict to be reached.

“There is not a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted on these counts,” they said.

The appeal means the mum, who is not eligible for parole until 2028, will continue to serve her sentence behind bars.