A man accused of abducting and sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl in Newcastle was allegedly caught on dashcam footage, before his arrest.
Brett David Hill, 47, on Tuesday appeared in Newcastle Local Court via video link, charged with kidnapping, six counts of aggravated sexual assault and four counts of aggravated indecent assault.
Police allege he is the man who abducted the 11-year-old girl as she walked through Hudson Park in the Newcastle suburb of Adamstown about 9.15am on June 12.
It is alleged he threatened the girl, telling her he had a knife, before sexually assaulting her.
Police allege the girl was forced into a red Holden Commodore and sexually and indecently assaulted in a remote area of bushland before being left at nearby Kotara railway station about 2.15pm.
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Newcastle police scoured CCTV footage and fielded a huge volume of calls but the breakthrough in the alleged attack came when police received dashcam footage from a bus on Friday night.
Mr Hill was identified after a magistrate revoked the non-publication order of his name yesterday.
An application to extend a non-publication order was made by his solicitor Rob Hussey, who told Magistrate Robert Stone that he feared for his client’s safety.
Mr Hussey said his client was being held in protective custody with another inmate who has access to a television, suffers from schizophrenia, has a kettle and razor blades.
But Magistrate Robert Stone was urged by the police prosecutor and Child Abuse Squad detectives to lift the suppression order, saying they believed identity was no longer an issue in the case.
The matter has been adjourned until August 15.
- Additional reporting by AAP.
