Antonius van de Zandt found guilty of raping, indecently assaulting niece

"I hope this story will help inspire others to come forward so there won't be shadows where these people can hide," Queenie van de Zandt told The Canberra Times.

"We have to start holding people to account, even if it's hard to prove and can be very stressful for families."

A jury needed less than a day to find her perpetrator guilty of raping and indecently assaulting the woman in the middle of the night when she was 15.

That was, despite the "simply implausible" claim he was asleep during the abuse.

"The person she turned to was the person who took advantage of her when she was vulnerable," prosecutor Caitlin Diggins said during her closing address.

Antonius van de Zandt, 72, offered no reaction when a jury found him guilty on Wednesday of sexual intercourse with a child and committing an act of indecency on a child.

Multiple supporters, who were present in the courts throughout the six-day trial, let out loud cries of despair and shock when they discovered the man's fate.

The child sexual abuse took place in March 1986 in van de Zandt's Kaleen home.

"It's really important that victims, if they're able to, speak out about what happened to them and that they take perpetrators to trial," Ms van de Zandt said.

The victim, who has consented to being named in media reporting, described her aunt and uncle as "second parents" whom she spent more time with after her own parent's divorce.

As Ms Diggins outlined, three key facts of the case were not disputed throughout the trial.

Firstly, that on the night in question, the victim slept in van de Zandt's bed.

And that in the bed, the offender woke Ms van de Zandt up and digitally penetrated her before the man forced the girl's hand onto his genitals.

Ms Diggins told jurors van de Zandt had acted "deliberately and voluntarily", and according to the victim's evidence, replied "sorry" when she said "you're my uncle" in an effort to stop him.

He is said to have apologised again the following morning "because he was admitting what he'd done".

Defence lawyer Edward Chen previously said his client accepted he had "sexually interfered" with his niece but stated the man was "genuinely not awake" when it occurred.

"I know what you're thinking - how implausible that sounds," Mr Chen said in his opening address.

Van de Zandt gave evidence he had no memory of the incident, did not know the victim was staying the night, and only found out what had happened the following morning.

He, at stages, became "frustrated" with cross-examination questions he called "dumb", and had to be told by Chief Justice Lucy McCallum the prosecutor was "obliged" to ask them.

Differing memories and clashing accounts of events surrounding the offending night raised questions about evidence throughout the trial.

Jurors heard about two meetings following the incident, both which the offender flatly denied took place.

In the first meeting, the victim's sister told the court van de Zandt used his "animalistic" sexual desires as a "justification" for the act.

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In the second, Ms van de Zandt claimed her uncle said "I thought you wanted it" because the teenager had changed in front of her.

No other witnesses were able to corroborate the two meetings.

The court also heard the victim had stood up in front of "200 people" in 2004 and spoken about what her uncle did, and that the man attended and addressed the audience himself.

In evidence, he recalled going to the self-help event but had no memory of speaking.

The jury was asked to keep an "open mind" about the trial's evidence but was ultimately convinced beyond a reasonable doubt the offender had knowingly raped his niece in the middle of the night.

Van de Zandt, who remains on bail, embraced his emotional supporters after Chief Justice McCallum thanked jurors and returned to her chambers.

He is set to be sentenced in November.

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