![Muhammad Ali leaves court earlier this week. Picture by Hannah Neale Muhammad Ali leaves court earlier this week. Picture by Hannah Neale](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/DaHt57RjVSvtvCBUgFzTWj/ad1c90ab-c20a-4b2d-a020-98048999ae6d.JPG/r0_42_3164_1821_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Allegations a childcare worker committed indecent acts on three preschoolers were "like a snowball rolling down a hill", a defence barrister has claimed.
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The man is accused of touching the genitals of children at a Canberra daycare centre.
A jury began deliberations in the trial of Muhammad Ali, of Scullin, in the ACT Supreme Court on Friday.
The 29-year-old has pleaded not guilty to three counts of committing an act of indecency on a child.
Ali denies indecently assaulting the children, aged between three and four, when he worked at a daycare centre in 2022.
The court previously heard on April 21 last year, a four-year-old boy allegedly told his mother Ali had been mean to him and his friends, and "touched his doodle".
The prosecution claimed the mother spoke to staff at the daycare centre and Ali was immediately stood down pending investigations.
When questioned, Ali allegedly told his superiors at the centre the boy was upset because the child had bitten him and pushed his backside into the accused's hand.
It is alleged around this time, another mother had noticed her daughter's genitals were red and inflamed while giving her a bath.
The court heard the girl told her mother she had fallen on a metal climbing frame at daycare.
Shortly afterwards, the two women spoke at a birthday party, prompting the mother of the girl to ask further questions.
It is alleged the girl then told her mother Ali had pulled her pants down, touched her private parts, and it "happened a lot".
In a police interview played to the court, the three-year-old told officers Ali had also touched her older brother's "nu nu" during the same alleged incident.
On Friday, prosecutor Trent Hickey gave his closing address to the jury.
He argued Ali had a sexual interest in young children and a willingness to act on that interest.
Mr Hickey said Ali "was obtaining sexual gratification" by touching the children's genitals.
The prosecutor argued the children were a "tender age" and "didn't understand that what happened to them was seriously wrong".
Mr Hickey said the girl had disclosed Ali's name, unprompted by her mother.
"Of all the people in her world, she said Ali had touched her," Mr Hickey said.
"[The girl] said Ali had told her to say she fell.
"You know from your own experience of young children that they say lots of things, but they don't say that. They don't say they have been sexually abused."
The prosecutor told the jury one of the boys had told police Ali had "pinched me on the doodle and it hurted but I didn't cry".
"He thinked it was fun my teacher but it was not fun for me and then I bited," Mr Hickey said the boy had told police.
Mr Hickey claimed the boy "gave evidence without an awareness of the significance of the subject matter" and was "expressing himself in the language he knew as a four-year-old".
Ali's defence barrister, James Sabharwal, also gave a closing address to the jury.
He said the allegations were "a little like a snowball rolling down a hill, picking up more snow as it continues to roll down".
Mr Sabharwal argued the first alleged victim was "sensitive of his penis" after undergoing a circumcision.
He claimed the boy "may have misinterpreted [Ali's] actions" in what "may have been incidental contact".
The barrister argued the boy sought "to minimise his own culpability" for biting Ali by making the allegations.
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Mr Sabharwal argued the mother didn't "critically analyse the account" of the three-year-old and "there has been some embellishment when things came to court".
"[The girl] was intentionally or unintentionally primed by her mother to say that she was touched," Mr Sabharwal said.
He said the older brother had not made any allegations to police that Ali had touched his genitals, but rather claimed the accused had kicked him.
Jury deliberations continue.
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