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ABC News
6 days ago
- ABC News
Former WA Police officer Gary Edward Fitzgerald has charges of improper sexual relationship dropped
A former WA Police officer accused of having an improper relationship with a 16-year-old girl has had the case against him dropped during his trial. Gary Edward Fitzgerald was a serving officer when he started a sexual relationship with the girl about 25 years ago, after meeting her during his policing duties. The prosecution alleged the girl, who was over 16, could not give consent to sex because she was under his authority. Mr Fitzgerald was charged with five counts of sexual penetration of a child over 16, under their care, supervision, or authority. But the prosecution has been discontinued in the District Court. Prosecutor Danya Borkowski said there had been legal discussions regarding the element of "care, supervision, or authority". "We concluded that we were unable to establish that element to the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt," she told the court. Judge Michael Bowden told the jury the discontinuance had been accepted by the court. "This is a court of law, not of morality," he told the jurors. He said it would only have been an offence if the sexual relationship was with a girl aged over 16 who was under care, supervision, or authority. The court heard from the complainant on Monday, who had described sexual encounters in detail, including threesomes, and sex in the interview room of Fremantle Police Station. The defence lawyer had put it to her that the sex in the police station did not happen, to which she responded: "That's completely incorrect." She told the court the sex they had was consensual and there was a "mutual attraction" from the time they first met, which led to flirtatious phone messages, including sexual innuendo. The pair first met when Mr Fitzgerald attended the teenager's home on duty, when her housemate was reported to have run away. The complainant said the sexual relationship stopped when she was about 17, and "definitely" was not continuing when she was 18. But she admitted that Mr Fitzgerald never presented himself as her "personal on-call police officer", and the sex had nothing to do with any ongoing investigation.
ABC News
04-08-2025
- ABC News
Former WA Police officer Gary Edward Fitzgerald allegedly had sex with teenager in police station
A WA Police officer had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl he met while on duty, and even had sex with her in the interview room at Fremantle Police Station, a Perth court has been told. WARNING: This story contains details which may distress some readers. The District Court has heard the former officer encouraged her to participate in threesomes, with the complainant thinking she "couldn't say no" because he was with the police force. Gary Edward Fitzgerald, 55, is on trial, charged with five counts of sexual penetration of a child over 16, under their care, supervision or authority. The time period covered by the prosecution case is from 1999 through to 2001, when Mr Fitzgerald was a serving officer. The prosecution said Mr Fitzgerald first went to the 16-year-old girl's home with another officer after she had called police, worried about a housemate who had run away. Following some "flirty comments", he handed her his card with his mobile phone number on it, prosecutor Danya Borkowski said. She said a sexual relationship soon started, with encounters "every week or so". On one occasion, the court heard, Mr Fitzgerald said he had "too much paperwork" and asked her to go to Fremantle Police Station with a made-up story about "an incident at Coles". When they were in the interview room, the pair had sex, Ms Borkowski said. Mr Fitzgerald later asked for the teenager to have a threesome with himself and a woman at his Samson home, the court was told. The prosecutor said the pair also had a threesome with a man Mr Fitzgerald was living with in Bull Creek. Ms Borkowski told the jury a 16-year-old can't be considered as giving consent if Mr Fitzgerald was in a position of authority as a police officer. "She believed she couldn't say no," the prosecutor said. Mr Fitzgerald's lawyer said his client thought the complainant was an adult woman at the time. Defence lawyer David McCallum called on the jury to give his client "a fair go". He told the court that what would be in dispute was whether the then teenager was in his care, supervision or authority. "He was never in a position to have any lawful authority over her," Mr McCallum said. Appearing in court via videolink, the complainant described in detail the sexual acts she engaged in with Mr Fitzgerald and others. She told the court that when she first met Mr Fitzgerald, and they had gone looking for her housemate in Cottesloe, she made a flirty comment. She was sitting alongside him in the police vehicle and found there was something "digging" into her. "Is that your gun or are you happy to see me," she said she asked him. The woman told the court she believed she was seeing the officer for about a year but said it was "sex on call" and was not "really a relationship". She said she felt it was the "price to pay" for him being available for issues related to her housemate. She told the court she believed she "owed him" for being on call, but she also described herself as "naive". The trial continues.
