Australian navy captain cleared of sexually touching 10-year-old girl during overnight stay

A jury has acquitted a Navy captain on charges that he sexually touched a 10-year-old girl during a late-night visit to her family home.

After deliberating for just under two hours, jurors found Daniel Anthony Craig Lindquist not guilty Wednesday of four counts of sexually touching a child.

In a week-long criminal trial, the 35-year-old’s defense team claimed he entered the girl’s bedroom in Queanbeyan, outside Canberra, in the early hours of March 21, 2022, out of paternal concern after hearing her moving.

The girl, who cannot be legally identified, was reportedly touched twice on her genitals, once on her buttocks and once on her chest.

Defense attorney Adam Faro told the jury during his opening statement that Mr. Lindquist was in “dad mode” when he entered the room and found the girl half out of her bed.

Mr Faro said his client picked the girl up and noticed her pajama bottoms had ridden up between the crease of her thigh and crotch.

As he took off her trousers, the girl woke up, Faro told Queanbeyan District Court.

“Any physical contact was normal physical contact with no sexual connotation,” he said.

Prosecutors alleged that Lindquist intentionally separated the girl’s legs, lifted her underwear, touched her legs and then placed his hand on the outside of her genitals.

Crown prosecutor Talitha Hennessy told the court the girl had pretended to be asleep the first time he touched her before covering her genital area, touching her on the chest.

Mr Lindquist was Captain of HMAS Larrakia and was based at the Larrakeyah Defense Precinct outside Darwin before being posted to Sydney in early 2022.

In March of that year, he visited the girl and her family at their home and stayed for a weekend.

After Mr Lindquist returned to Sydney, the girl disclosed what had happened to her parents and grandparents, who reported the matter to police, the court heard.

Police were also told that Lindquist had touched the girl’s sister by putting his hand down her pants while she sat on his lap, Ms. Hennessy said.

Daniel Lindquist (left) arrives at Queanbeyan Court, NSW, on Tuesday, March 12, 2024

“(He) has a special tendency, which is the tendency to have a sexual interest in children and to act on it,” she told the court.

The charges Mr Lindquist faced only related to the girl he was accused of killing in Queanbeyan and not her sister.

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