A JURY has retired to decide the fate of motor racing champion Sir Jack Brabham's son, who is on trial for allegedly raping a young girl as she sat on his lap in a car.
Gary Thomas Brabham, 45, pleaded not guilty to seven charges in the Brisbane District Court on Monday. It has been alleged the girl was aged between six and 10 at the time Brabham touched her in a sexual way, between 2003 and 2007.
The jury was shown a 2012 video of the girl, now 19, telling a police officer that Brabham touched her when she was a six-year-old as she sat on his lap, wearing shorts, while he drove a car.
The girl said on another occasion, after she had been sick at her home in Brisbane's west, Brabham came into her room, sat beside her and rubbed his hand on her vagina.
"I was crying," the girl said. "He was sort of like comforting me as he was touching me...He made it seem to me I was crying because I was sick, but I was crying because he was touching me."
The girl said afterwards she tried to get away from Brabham as quickly as possible.
The jury retired to begin deliberating its verdict about 3.30pm yesterday, and will resume this morning.
Brabham is the son of three time Formula One champion Sir Jack Brabham, who died on the Gold Coast in 2014, aged 88.
Gary Brabham made a foray into Formula One in 1990 and had two starts in the Indy Car World Series in 1993 and 1994 and retired in 1995. He was the first Australian to race in the Gold Coast IndyCar.