The defendant in a 30-year-old sex assault case admitted to the sister of the two alleged victims that he slept with the oldest girl, the Supreme Court heard yesterday.

The 50-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court that she confronted the defendant one night in the mid-1990s after he moved into her old home.

She said she asked if he “interfered with my [older] sister”, to which “he responded with a laugh and said, ‘things happen’”.

The woman added: “He played it off; he said ‘sometimes you get started and you can’t stop,’ but something did happen – he had sex with my sister.”

The defendant, now 59, has denied nine charges related to sexual offences against two young sisters including unlawful carnal knowledge, attempted unlawful carnal knowledge and sexual exploitation.

Neither the defendant nor the complainants in the case, which was alleged to have happened in the early and mid-1990s, can be identified for legal reasons.

The woman told the court that she met the defendant, aged around 30 at the time, from her times clubbing after graduating from high school and the two quickly became friends.

She said that he became a family friend after the two of them painted her mother’s home in around 1992 and moved in later that year.

The woman said that she did not live in the house at the time, having moved out during her teenage years, but that her two sisters, aged 11 and 4 at the time, lived in the house.

Acting Inspector Julia Tankard told the court yesterday morning that the two alleged victims made a complaint against the defendant in 2018.

She added that she arrested the defendant that same year and searched the old house in 2019.

Ms Tankard, who was a superintendent with the Serious Crime Unit at the time, said she acted with the assistance of a police consultant.

Charles Richardson, for the defence, questioned why she interviewed the alleged victims again after another officer had spoken to him.

He also asked why this consultant was involved in the case in the first place.

Ms Tankard said that both of those decisions were made by her commanding officer.

The trial continues.

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