Jury deliberates in minister trial

THE jury was locked in deliberations late Tuesday in the case of a former Uniting Church minister accused of sexually assaulting two young men. Maurice Arthur Frazier Wildish faced the second day of a trial on five counts of sexual assault in the Southport Magistrates Court.

He pleaded not guilty to all charges. Wildish is accused of sexually assaulting two young men in Far North Queensland between the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The 12-person jury had not delivered a verdict by late Tuesday, with deliberations expected to continue on Wednesday. During the trial, crown prosecutor Caitlin Usher said jurors needed to consider Wildish’s role is in the community.

“The crown suggests the defendant’s role in the community, a position of authority as an older and respected community and religious leader, is relevant here to this issue of consent,” she said.

Barrister Dominic Nguyen told jurors it was important to be impartial given there had been much discourse in the public sphere around sexual misconduct.

“You’d be living under a rock not to know about the claims of institutional sexual abuse. What you must not do is punish (Wildish) for the offending of others,” he said.

In the late 1990s, Wildish allegedly put his hands down a 16-year-old’s pants and touched the teen’s penis while he was receiving acne treatment at minister’s home, the court was told.

It was alleged the same thing happened again a week or so later. When the 16-yearold went to leave on this occasion, it was alleged Wildish put his hands down the teen’s pants again while hugging him.

In the early 2000s, it was alleged Wildish sexually assaulted another young man in a car during a counselling session. Both men reported the alleged incidents to police in 2016.