Pedophile trial first without jury in Queensland

Article from:

Tony Keim

November 04, 2008 11:00pm

A NOTORIOUS pedophile, jailed for having sex with an 11-year-old girl, will be the first in Queensland to face a criminal trial without a jury.

Ipswich District Court judge Greg Koppenol granted Roy Schloss, 79, the first jury-less trial since new state laws came into effect last month.

Barrister Andrew West, for Schloss, argued his client be granted a judge-only trial because of his repeated exposure as a pedophile in media reports spanning more than a decade.

Prosecutor Ron Swanwick did not oppose the defence's application.

Premier Anna Bligh and Attorney-General Kerry Shine announced the proposed laws in August, saying they were not aimed at specific individuals.

But, they said, several high-profile cases, including those of notorious pedophile Dennis Ferguson and former Bundaberg surgeon Jayant Patel, had prompted the rethink.

"Clearly there has been recent debate about the jury system here in Queensland arising out of a couple of cases," Ms Bligh said.

Mr Shine said judge-only trials would give defendants an "additional option" for having their cases heard.

Schloss has already served 11 years of a combined 21-year sentence for sexually assaulting several young girls in the 1980s and 1990s.

He will be 87 before he is eligible for release.

Schloss was convicted in 1997 for paying an Ipswich couple $20 so they could buy cigarettes in exchange for having sex with their 11-year-old daughter.

He was also convicted of molesting the girl's nine-year-old sister and sentenced to almost 13 years' jail, later reduced to nine years by the Court of Appeal.

In 2004, two more complainants came forward.

The girls, who had been teenage runaways, alleged Schloss had given them accommodation and money in return for sex when they were aged between 12 and 16.

On November 25, 2005, an Ipswich jury found Schloss guilty of raping the complainants between 1986 and 1990.

In March, he was committed to trial for allegedly raping another girl at his North Ipswich home between 1984 and 1985. That trial, without jury, begins today.

It is understood Schloss's health is in decline and that his mind may be starting to fail, an issue first flagged by his then-barrister Peter Rashleigh, who told Ipswich District Court in 2005 that Schloss was unwell, having been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.