Prompted by something that had occurred at school, an Illawarra mother sat her young daughter down one morning some 15 months ago and asked her whether anyone had inappropriately touched her.
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The answer would tear her extended family apart.
The seven-year-old revealed to her mother that she’d been subjected to repeated acts of sexual assault by her step-grandfather for near on eight months.
“[He] licked me and put his doodle in my mouth,” the girl said.
The woman contacted her partner – the man’s son – and told him of the allegations.
The son then confronted his father, who immediately confessed to interfering with the young girl.
“I was a bloody idiot and I need help,” he said, admitting he’d probably chosen the child over her half-siblings because “she’s not family”.
The matter was reported to police and the man was arrested two months later in March 2015.
He admitted to most of the allegations during a subsequent interview, but tried to deny he was sexually attracted to his step-granddaughter, claiming the acts had occurred in the “spur of the moment”.
Court documents reveal the crimes happened between November 2013 and July 2014 when the girl was six year’s old, and consisted him performing cunnilingus on the child and having her perform fellatio on him when they were alone at home.
On most occasions he would pay the girl $50 after molesting her, telling her “put this somewhere safe...don’t let your mum, dad, brother of sister see [it]”.
The man was sentenced to up to nine years jail in Wollongong District Court this week, with Judge Paul Conlon saying he had used his position as a grandfather to prey on a “vulnerable” child.
“This was a gross breach of trust,” he said.
A victim impact statement prepared by the girl’s maternal grandmother said she had gone from a happy little girl to “angry” and “agitated”.
“She is suffering from severe trauma.”
Judge Conlon set a non-parole period of six years. With time served, the man will be first eligible for parole in 2021.