A three-day trial has begun for a man accused of raping a young child at a Queensland childcare centre.
The alleged digital rape occurred at a centre on the Sunshine Coast in 2022.
Arvind Ajay Singh, 43, from the Sunshine Coast, has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape.
The case is being heard in the Maroochydore District Court, with the prosecution directly quoting the child’s statements while addressing the jury this afternoon.
“He always gives cuddles,” crown prosecutor Alex Stark told the jury.
“Sometimes when I cuddle him, he pulls my undies to the side … and I don’t like it.”
Mr Stark told the court the child also told their parents that their genitals “were sore”.
Mr Singh sat in the dock with his arms crossed while looking down at the ground during today’s proceedings.
The court heard the child told their parents of the alleged offending.
Arvind Ajay Singh is facing one count of rape over an alleged incident at a childcare centre in 2022. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Jessica Ross)
Mr Stark told the court that the child gave a statement to the police the next day.
“[They’re] simply not capable of consenting,” Mr Stark said of the child’s age.
The court heard the 12 jurors would hear from 10 witnesses across the three-day-trial.
They would include the child, the child’s parents, police, doctors, and workers from the childcare centre.
The court was closed for a time today while two edited police interviews with the child — one from the day after the report was made and another from 2023 — were played as evidence.
Mr Singh’s barrister, Lachlan Ygoa-McKeown, reminded jurors it was the crown prosecutor’s job to convince them beyond a reasonable doubt of his client’s guilt.
He maintained his client was innocent of the rape charge.
The trial will resume tomorrow.