DNA material potentially linking a former Albion Park Rail teacher to sex acts on a young girl could have been innocently transferred, Wollongong District Court has heard.
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In evidence on Thursday, Mark Robert Forbes told the court he had slept on his guest bed a fortnight before it was used by two young girls, and he was unsure if the sheets had been washed in between.
Defence barrister Susan Oliver, acting for Forbes, further introduced the possibility that saliva found on one of the girls’ chests – since matched to Forbes’s DNA profile – might have originated from a towel in his bathroom.
The court heard that Forbes shared the bathroom with his wife and male occupants who would have the same DNA.
Forbes has pleaded not guilty to five charges of indecently assaulting a child and a charge of aggravated sexual intercourse with a child aged under 10.
The charges relate to two girls who stayed overnight at his house on March27, 2013.
Both girls allege Forbes touched them inappropriately. The younger one also alleges the then 53-year-old performed sexual acts on her.
On Thursday Forbes gave evidence that he had used his bathroom between three and five times the night of the alleged assaults. After drinking from the tap, he would wipe his face on a towel.
Biologist Michele Anne Franco told the court it was possible for saliva to transfer from a towel onto the hands of a person using the towel.
Forbes told the court he heard his wife repeatedly try to quieten the girls that night, and he sat with them to try to quieten them.
He put his arm around the older girl in order to steady her as she sat on the side of a bed, on a railing, and grabbed her wrist when he thought she would fall.
‘‘At the end of the bed there’s another white bar, so she could fall onto that,’’ he said.
He denied he had put his hand inside the girl’s pants and asked her ‘‘are you feeling uncomfortable?’’, as the girl alleges.
‘‘No, I said, ‘this is uncomfortable’,’’ Forbes told the court, referring to their being seated on the bedside railing.
Forbes denied any physical contact with the younger girl.
The court heard evidence from two supporters who attested to the former assistant principal’s good character and teaching history.
The trial continues on Friday before Judge Mark Marien.
