Prominent South Australian wine identity Peter Seppelt has been acquitted on child sex charges.
In the District Court on Friday, Judge Simon Stretton found Seppelt not guilty of maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child and also acquitted him on the alternative charges of five individual counts of unlawful sexual intercourse.
After a trial by judge alone, he found that one act of grabbing and kissing the victim had occurred before her 17th birthday.
But he said there was reasonable doubt as to whether a second act had taken place before she turned 17, something necessary to prove an unlawful sexual relationship.
Judge Stretton said the individual act of grabbing and kissing the girl did not amount to unlawful sexual intercourse and no other offences had been charged.
The allegations against Seppelt, 55, dated back to the 1990s.
In his published reasons for his verdict, the judge found the complainant to be a "completely honest witness who gave evidence well".
"But the passage of 24 years since the event in question would affect anyone's ability to date with certainty moments such as these, moments which were not inherently tied to specifically identifiable time periods or any other distinguishable historical events," he said.
"Accordingly, taking everything into account, whilst it is proven that the accused held and kissed the complainant on a single occasion when she was under the age of 17, constituting an initial unlawful sexual act, there is a reasonable doubt as to when the subsequent sexual acts occurred."
Seppelt made no comment as he left court on Friday.
Australian Associated Press