Accused child care rapist found not guilty by jury

A Brisbane childcare worker accused of sexually abusing children has been found not guilty by a jury.

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 allegedly committed while working at a C&K centre on Robinson Road in Brisbane’s north.

During the four-day trial, Capps took the stand to deny the allegations against him.

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 “doctors” with several children, the trial heard.

The prosecution alleged Capps took advantage of the fact it was normal for educators to have physical contact with children.

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.

“I 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,” Spiteri said.

Spiteri said Capps accepted in his own evidence other educators in the vicinity had been preoccupied.

In his closing submissions, Capps’ 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.

He raised how his client had chosen to take the stand, which opened him to cross-examination.

Kennedy also urged the jury to put aside their sympathy.

He said the alleged victim’s mother was clearly loving, but she was concerned about a male educator.

“I don’t submit that she is in any way trying to run a smear campaign, or she’s a bad person. She’s not … she clearly cares for her kids and clearly was concerned by what she saw,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said from the footage shown to the court, one could see Capps talking throughout, and the mother approach.

He questioned why the mother was not shocked or in horror, and pointed out there were at least five other educators in the vicinity.

“She’s seen him down, she’s had a chat [with her son] in the car, and she’s played this in her mind and has gone straight to panic stations,” he said.

On Friday afternoon, the jury returned after almost 2½ hours of deliberating, to return a not guilty verdict to all four counts.

After the verdict, Capps was emotional and hugged his family in court.

When leaving the court, Capps declined to answer questions about the verdict, and his future in the childcare industry.

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