Wackademic, who cannot be named, is facing 12 separate sex charges….

Beats me why “he cannot be named”. The media is not always so coy. In fact, there are many instances where the media destroyed people for much less. Why are they protecting the identity of a serial rapist?

A YOUNG teen girl accusing a university academic of sexually assaulting her on separate occasions told a school friend he “raped” her during a sleepover at his family home, a court has been told.

Newscom/thanks to Dhumme

While giving evidence at a committal hearing today, that young friend broke down in tears as she told Melbourne Magistrates’ Court how the academic “walked around in his underwear a lot” at home in front of his young daughter’s girlfriends.

“It was a bit weird for me,” the alleged victim’s friend sobbed during the academic’s committal hearing.

Under cross examination, the complainant’s friend said the alleged victim first made mention of sex assaults two days after a weekend sleepover at the academic’s home.

The alleged victim and her school friend were friends of the academic’s daughter at the time.

The witness said during the schoolyard conversation the complainant alleged the uni academic had raped her.

“That’s definitely the words she used,” the young witness told the court.

She said her friend accused the academic of touching her “in bad places”.

The complainant’s friend also told the court she woke up during a birthday party sleepover at the academic’s home and saw him lying close to the alleged victim on a mattress on the lounge room floor.

He told the complainant’s friend he’d put his daughter in bed and was trying to put his alleged victim to sleep, the court heard.

The young witness said she woke up on a second occasion that night and heard the alleged victim say: “Stop. I can call the police you know.”

The academic, who cannot be named, is facing 12 separate sex charges.

Eleven relate to his daughter’s friend, aged 11 when she first accused him.

The other charge relates to the 11-year-old’s sister, aged eight at the time.

Another witness said today that members of the academic’s family and the 11-year-old girl sat around in underpants and T-shirts at his home one night watching an animated movie in front of a wood fire heater.

The alleged victims’ mother told the hearing she was distressed and mortified upon learning of the sex accusations.

The court heard the eight-year-old girl accused the academic of sexually assaulting her three months after her older sister had spoken out – after the mother said the elder sister had “been touched on her private parts”.

The elder sister had received special attention at home and been taken out on shopping sprees by her mother by that stage, the court was told.

The eight-year-old has accused the academic of indecently assaulting her at a swimming pool.

The court heard the 11-year-old was a regular and keen visitor at the academic’s family home and often sat on his knee and received piggy-backs from him.

She had even asked to go on an overseas trip with his family, the court heard.

The mother said her 11-year-old daughter skipped and danced during breaks while making her eventual video police statement.

The academic is charged with four counts of sexual penetration of a child under 16, four of committing an indecent act with a child under 16 and four of indecent assault.

The preliminary hearing, before Magistrate Donna Bakos, has been adjourned until Tuesday.