A man accused of indecently assaulting a wheelchair-bound woman with dementia while he was visiting a Sydney nursing home has rubbished claims he scouted out an empty room before the alleged offence.
David Patrick Frost, 68, was seeing his father at the eastern suburbs aged-care facility in November 2017 when he allegedly pushed the elderly woman into a bedroom, lifted her onto a bed and removed her pants.
"The complainant was found in a state of partial undress with the trousers removed (and) the incontinence pad folded down," crown prosecutor Melanie O'Connell submitted on Wednesday.
"She is now deceased and you won't be hearing evidence accordingly."
Frost is facing a hearing before magistrate Daniel Covington in Downing Centre Local Court after pleading not guilty to the aggravated indecent assault of a cognitively impaired victim.
The court was played an hour-long police video of the retiree being interviewed by the officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Sergeant Michael Egan-Hirst, less than 48 hours after the alleged incident.
In it, Frost said: "Ask me anything. I don't think there's too much to ask, actually."
He recounted a woman in a wheelchair had asked for a soda but demanded she get it herself, claiming he then wheeled her to a room, "pushed her in, up to the bed" and tried "to find out if there really was any soda in there".
Det Sgt Egan-Hirst asked: "Do you remember what she was wearing at the time?"
Frost replied: "No, I don't."
"She was dressed. She wasn't in a nightie or anything like that ... she was fully dressed," he said.
Frost was allegedly alone with the woman, who had severe dementia, for 13 to 14 minutes.
Det Sgt Egan-Hirst told Frost that after he left the room, a carer at the facility heard the woman screaming and found her naked from the waist down, with an incontinence pad pushed to the side and her pants on a dresser.
"I certainly didn't see her in that state," Frost said in the interview.
Det Sgt Egan-Hirst asked: "So you didn't take her pants off?"
Frost replied: "No."
Det Sgt Egan-Hirst also suggested Frost's gait slowed when first walking past the bedroom where the alleged offending later took place, and that he didn't "seem to take any notice" of any other rooms.
Det Sgt Egan-Hirst said: "I believe that you have entered that aged-care facility, located a room that has been empty, that you knew that was empty prior. What do you tell me about that?"
Frost replied: "I think as a cop, you'd be better off as a novelist."
Under cross-examination by defence barrister William Barber, the detective said "60 to 120 seconds" elapsed between Frost leaving the room and the carer entering.
The hearing continues.
Australian Associated Press
