![\"Cloe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/63969d041ab3e8b95716f2891ac29aa30b718b6a4b95c1da7abad8d66abff796.png\")
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Updated April 24, 2026 \u2014 4:56pm,first published 2:21pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n A Brisbane childcare worker who was reported to police by a mother who said she saw him touch tongues with a child has been found not guilty of rape and sexual abuse by a jury, after the defence mounted a case on prejudice against male childcare workers.<\/p>\n Joshua James Capps pleaded not guilty at the beginning of his trial this week to one count of rape and three counts of indecent treatment of a child, which he was alleged to have committed while working at a C&K centre on Robinson Road in Brisbane\u2019s north.<\/p>\n During the four-day trial, Capps took the stand to deny the allegations against him.<\/p>\n A mother of one of the alleged victims, a three-year-old boy, told the trial she had walked in on Capps crouching in front of another child and their tongues were poking out, touching each other. Capps had played a game called \u201cdoctors\u201d with several children, the trial heard.<\/p>\n The prosecution alleged Capps took advantage of the fact it was normal for educators to have physical contact with children.<\/p>\n In her closing submissions, Crown Prosecutor Arielle Spiteri told the jury it was plausible that Capps could have been doing something innocuous with the children.<\/p>\n \u201cI suggest that Mr Capps committed these offences also under the guise of doing something innocuous, so these things would have just looked like a normal interaction between an educator and child,\u201d Spiteri said.<\/p>\n Spiteri said Capps accepted in his own evidence other educators in the vicinity had been preoccupied.<\/p>\n In his closing submissions, Capps\u2019 barrister, Jack Kennedy, told the jury while the world was acutely aware of sexual offending, this was not the case for his client, who was not guilty of the charges.<\/p>\n He raised how his client had chosen to take the stand, which opened him to cross-examination.<\/p>\n Kennedy also urged the jury to put aside their sympathy.<\/p>\n He said allegations were \u201cvery easy to make, but the knock on effects, the consequences can be drastic\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cRepercussions can be severe. This, in many respects, is not dissimilar to witch trials seen in the past, where you get panic. People believe they see things. They become sure they saw things, allegations made and then somebody\u2019s gone to trial.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the alleged victim\u2019s mother was clearly loving, but she was concerned about a male educator working in the centre.<\/p>\n Kennedy put to the mother under cross-examination earlier in the trial that she was concerned because she had read media articles about men in daycares. The mother agreed, but denied that she was predisposed not to trust Capps.<\/p>\n The mother told the court: \u201cI definitely knew that I\u2019d seen two tongues touching.\u201d<\/p>\n In his closing submissions, Kennedy told the jury: \u201cI don\u2019t submit that [the mother] is in any way trying to run a smear campaign, or she\u2019s a bad person. She\u2019s not … she clearly cares for her kids and clearly was concerned by what she saw,\u201d Kennedy said in his closing submissions.<\/p>\n Kennedy said from the footage shown to the court, one could see Capps talking throughout, and the mother approach. He said the footage did not show Capps touching tongues with a child.<\/p>\n The footage showed Capps, wearing a hat, crouching down closely face-to-face with the children. He could be heard in the footage saying:\u201cDoctor, help me, my elbow keeps breaking.\u201d<\/p>\n Kennedy questioned why the mother was not shocked or in horror, and pointed out there were at least five other educators in the vicinity.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s seen him down, she\u2019s had a chat [with her son] in the car, and she\u2019s played this in her mind and has gone straight to panic stations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Kennedy also raised how the boy was asked leading questions by police.<\/p>\n On Friday afternoon, the jury returned after almost 2\u00bd hours of deliberating, to return a not guilty verdict to all four counts.<\/p>\n After the verdict, Capps was emotional and hugged his family in court.<\/p>\n When leaving the court, Capps declined to answer questions about the verdict, and his future in the childcare industry.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Joshua](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/7259d2420e09da6b13a9e2d7be8f30be9feea390.jpeg\")
Joshua James Capps outside the Brisbane District Court on Wednesday.AAP \/ Darren England<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1090e3bcdba79ab8d7c35111c516f999a3766356578888d15aa96c05f0f19354.jpeg\")
The childcare centre in Geebung.<\/p>\n![\"Capps](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5d8dad1c476244df32a2acd7e3627bb60fa86f639506659a7880a3d699e37cad.jpeg\")
Capps leaving court with a supporter after being found not guilty.Cloe Read<\/p>\n![\"Cloe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/63969d041ab3e8b95716f2891ac29aa30b718b6a4b95c1da7abad8d66abff796.png\")
Cloe Read<\/a> is the crime and court reporter at Brisbane Times.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated April 24, 2026 \u2014 4:56pm,first published 2:21pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-628494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}