Accused ninth member of 'Evil 8' paedophile ring found not guilty
A Perth man accused of being the ninth member of the 'Evil 8' paedophile ring has been found not guilty of raping a girl who was pimped out by her father in one of the state's most horrific cases of child abuse.
Mitchell Baldwin was on Wednesday acquitted of the charge of sexual penetration without consent following a judge-alone trial in the District Court of Western Australia.
Mitchell Baldwin was found not guilty of raping a girl who was pimped out by her father to men.
During the trial the state had alleged the girl, who was aged 12 or 13 at the time, was taken to Mr Baldwin's Clarkson house by her father and, after a brief introduction, was raped by Mr Baldwin while her father watched on.
During evidence given by the girl remotely, she said she was crying and trying to get the man off her, and was "a mess" afterwards.
The state alleged Mr Baldwin and the girl's father had met on Craigslist – the website the father used to pimp his daughter out to strangers – and had arranged to meet in 2014 or 2015.
Evidence presented at the trial showed 10 purported emails between the girl's father and a user known as 'glen456' in January 2010, however the emails could not be opened by detectives three years on when the alleged offence was being investigated and it could not be confirmed if they were sent.
A search of Mr Baldwin's devices and telephone failed to find any evidence of contact with the girl's father taking place, although Mr Baldwin admitted his username was 'glen_456' and that he used to use Craigslist to discuss "adult fetish material" with others.
The girl's father gave evidence in Mr Baldwin's trial from custody, where he is serving a 23-year jail sentence for pimping his daughter out to seven other men and abusing her himself.
He told the court he was lonely after his relationship with the girl's mother broke down and placed ads on Craigslist "looking for people to have a beer with", but that it soon got out of hand.
Judge Michael Bowden found the father to be an un-credible witness who was seeking to shift blame for his daughter's abuse onto others, including Mr Baldwin.
The father told the court his memory of the abuse was not good and he had spent the last five years trying to put the matter behind him.
The state relied on the father and daughter's evidence that the man who raped her was in his 40s or 50s, with an English accent and light-grey spiky hair.
While Judge Bowden conceded Mr Baldwin's appearance was similar, he also found the father and daughter had been unable to accurately describe the accused's Clarkson home.
The pair also both separately picked Mr Baldwin out of a Digiboard line-up of 12 men, but neither could say for sure he was the offender.
Judge Bowden found the girl had been raped by a man at the time but the state had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt it was Mr Baldwin.
He is the first of nine offenders linked to the 'Evil 8' to be found not guilty.