A jury has been unable to reach a verdict on a police officer accused of indecently touching and taking an explicit photo of a young boy in his care.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The man, who cannot be named, stood trial last week on six charges alleged to have been committed on a 12-year-old boy in 2012.
The decorated police officer, also a volunteer, was caring for the boy and his siblings.
He allegedly came into the bathroom a nsumber of times after the 12-year-old had a shower and asked whether he could dry him and touch his penis.
The boy said he touched him inappropriately once, and focused on his genitals while drying him on another occasion.
Police raided their colleague's home and found an image of the boy naked on his computer.
They also found the man had searched the term "boys" in a nudity section of a website, and entered "boys no undies" and "boys first time" into Google.
The man fought the charges, saying the boy had made up the allegations, possibly because he was angry after the policeman told him he couldn't come back to the house due to behavioural problems.
He said the boy had a habit of running out of the shower with no clothes on, and that the explicit photo had been taken accidentally. He said he'd deleted it the moment he realised.
The policeman said he had searched the term "boys" because he was looking for images to add to disciplinary charts he was making for the children in his care.
The other search terms were said to have been entered into Google as "research" into the 12-year-old's behavioural problems.
The jury deliberated on the man's fate for three days.
But they told Justice Richard Refshauge on Tuesday afternoon that they were unable to reach a verdict on any of the charges.
The jury was discharged and the man is expected to face a re-trial at a later date.