In the Court of Criminal Appeal on Thursday Justice David Davies, together with Justice Clifton Hoeben and Justice Robert Hulmes, dismissed the appeal by the 42-year-old man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

The man, who was 40-years-old at the time of the offence in 2013, was jailed in Tamworth District Court in December, 2013, by Judge Colin Charteris for the sexual assault of a person under the age of 10, with two counts of indecent assault with a victim under the age of 16 also taken into account.

The offences occurred in May or June, 2013, involving the man’s six-year-old niece at her home in Tamworth.

Judge Charteris sentenced the man to a non-parole period of three years and six month from July, 2013, with an additional term of three years, expiring in 2020.

Judge Charteris allowed a 35 per cent reduction in the sentence for the pleas of guilty, confessions and co-operation with authorities.

The maximum penalty for the offence is 25 years with a standard non-parole of 15 years.

The man took his appeal to the higher court claiming the judge “erred in failing properly to take into account the applicant’s mental condition in determining the sentence.”

According to the facts of the case, on the night in question, the man injected himself with a quantity of home-made alcohol and cola using a syringe and went to his sister’s house and found the victim asleep on a lounge. The offender carried her to a caravan in the backyard and placed her in a bed before getting into the bed and pulling the covers over them.

He sexually assaulted the victim for “somewhere between five and 10 minutes”.

The offender then confessed to the mother of the child who contacted police later that day.

“The child was not only very young but the applicant by his relationship to her was in a position of trust which was sorely abused,” the judgement read.

The appeal was dismissed with the man not eligible for parole until 2017.