A woman from Australia has vowed to stand by her boyfriend after he was charged with raping her 8-year-old daughter.
The man, who could not be named, is reportedly in his 50s, was charged on Friday over the alleged rape.
Authorities believe that the rape happened between April 1 to April 14, 2020, at his house in Brisbane, where he lived with the girl and her mother.
He is reportedly also accused of molesting the child on 2 separate occasions, which happened in January this year and April.
While in court for a bail application this week, it was heard that that the mother of the 8-year-old girl, the victim, is standing by the side of the rapist.
After moving out of the family home, the man started to live on a sailboat in the Gold Coast.
John Paratz, a police prosecutor, said that the defendant is being granted bail due to the seriousness of the charges and because of the fact that sailboats are inherently mobile, which makes him a flight risk.
Paratz also argued that it was inappropriate to grant the man bail because he is still in a relationship with the mother of the 8-year-old victim.
Louise Shephard, a Magistrate, said that there is a significant error in the police affidavit opposing bail.
In the written affidavit, the police claimed that the defendant made admissions that matched with the statements of the girl during a pretext phone call.
The magistrate said that this was false and added that there had been no formal record of interview with the girl.
The magistrate continued and said that the man did not pick up the phone for the attempted pretext call.
The defendant has been granted bail and has been banned from having any unsupervised contact with children that are under the age of 16.
The case has been adjourned from the Beenleigh Magistrates Court.
The case will return to the Sandgate Magistrates Court on June 18, 2020