A jury has cleared a navy captain over allegations he sexually touched a 10-year-old girl during an overnight visit to her family home.
After deliberating for just under two hours, jurors found Daniel Anthony Craig Lindquist not guilty on Wednesday of four charges of sexually touching a child .
In a week-long criminal trial, the 35-year-old's defence team claimed he entered the girl's bedroom in Queanbeyan, outside Canberra, in the early hours of March 21, 2022, out of fatherly concern after he heard her stirring.
The girl, who cannot be legally identified, was allegedly touched twice on her genitalia, once on her bottom and once on her chest.
Defence barrister Adam Faro told the jury during his opening address that Mr Lindquist was in "dad mode" when he entered the room and found the girl half out of her bed.
Faro said his client had picked the girl up and noticed her pyjama pants had ridden up between the crease of her thigh and groin.
As he pulled her pants out, the girl woke up, Mr Faro told Queanbeyan District Court.
"Any physical contact was normal physical contact with no sexual connotation,” he said.
Prosecutors alleged Mr Lindquist deliberately separated the girl's legs, lifted her underwear, touched her legs and then placed his hand on the outside of her genital area.
Crown prosecutor Talitha Hennessy told the court the girl had pretended to be asleep when he touched her the first time before covering her genital area, leading him to touch her on the chest.
Mr Lindquist was captain of HMAS Larrakia and was stationed at Larrakeyah Defence Precinct outside Darwin before being posted to Sydney in early 2022.
In March that year, he visited the girl and her family at their home and stayed for a weekend.
After Mr Lindquist returned to Sydney, the girl disclosed what had happened to her parents and grandparents who reported the matter to police, the court heard.
Police were also told Mr Lindquist had touched the girl's sister by putting his hand down her pants as she sat on his lap, Ms Hennessy said.
“(He) has a particular tendency, that is a tendency to have a sexual interest in children and to act on that,” she told the court.
The charges facing Mr Lindquist related only to the girl he was accused of abusing in Queanbeyan and not to her sister.
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