A captain of a naval patrol boat has denied touching a young girl four times in a sexual manner, saying he went into her darkened bedroom early one morning to help out of fatherly concern.

Daniel Anthony Craig Lindquist appeared with his wife as a criminal trial began at Queanbeyan District Court on Tuesday.

He has been accused of sexually touching a 10-year-old girl in her Queanbeyan bedroom on one morning on March 21, 2022.

“The crown case is that the accused when he went to her bed … separated her legs, lifted her underwear, touched her legs and then placed his hand on the outside of her genital area,” crown prosecutor Talitha Hennessy said.

The girl, who cannot be legally identified, was allegedly touched twice on her genitalia, once on her bottom and once on her chest.

The 35-year-old was captain of HMAS Larrakia and was stationed at Larrakeyah Defence Precinct outside Darwin before being posted to Sydney in early 2022.

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

The girl initially pretended to be asleep when she was allegedly touched the first time by Lindquist, Ms Hennessy told jurors.

Eventually waking up, she covered her genital area, leading to the navy captain touching her on the chest, the prosecutor said.

After Lindquist returned to Sydney, the girl disclosed what had happened to her parents and grandparents, went to see a psychologist and reported the matter to police in a recorded interview, the court heard.

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

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

Earlier on Tuesday, the 35-year-old pleaded not guilty to four counts of sexually touching a child between 10 and 16 years old.

These pleas were echoed as defence barrister Adam Faro gave a brief address to the jury.

Mr Faro said Lindquist admitted going into the girl’s bedroom, but only after being woken up during the night by sounds of her stirring.

“I expect you’ll hear that ‘dad mode’ turned on and he went in to check,” Mr Faro said.

Lindquist entered the room to find the girl half out of her bed, jurors heard.

Picking her up, he noticed her pyjama pants had ridden up between the crease of her thigh and groin.

As he pulled her pants out, the girl woke up, Mr Faro told the court.

Lindquist also denied sexually touching the girl’s sister, the barrister continued.

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

The trial is being overseen by Judge Peter Whitford and is expected to last between five and seven days.

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