Source: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24 ... 77,00.html
By Christine Flatley
September 05, 2008 02:11pm
A QUEENSLAND court has overturned the conviction of a woman jailed for raping her eight-year-old daughter.
The woman, who cannot be named, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years' jail in February following a trial in the Brisbane District Court. She had pleaded not guilty to raping her child at their home at Donnybrook, north of Brisbane, between November 2005 and February 2006.
It was alleged the woman used either her finger or a sex toy to digitally penetrate the young girl.
The girl told police she then "blanked out" and said she did not remember any other details of the alleged offence.
During the trial, the court was told the girl had been medically examined but that the examination was inconclusive.
Lawyers for the woman, who was 41 at the time of sentencing, last month appeared in the Court of Appeal in Brisbane to argue the conviction should be quashed because of issues with the girl's credibility.
They argued her interviews with police were inconsistent, and that she later admitted she could not be sure whether her mother had entered her room or whether she had been dreaming.
In a written judgment handed down today, the Court of Appeal acquitted the woman after finding there was a "concern about the sufficiency and quality of the evidence to support a conviction".
