A Queensland father who sexually abused his own daughter nearly every second day over an 11-year period before handing himself into police has been jailed for 12 years for what a judge described as disgusting and unbelievable behaviour.
Warning: This story contains content that some readers may find distressing.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sentenced in the Toowoomba District Court on Thursday after his daughter delivered a powerful victim impact statement from the bar table.
The now 18-year-old’s hands shook as she read from an eloquent statement, addressing the man who had abused her from the age of four until she was 15.
“You have hurt me but you will never destroy me. I have a bright future and nothing you can do can stop me,” she told her father and the court.
“While you sit in prison, keep in mind all that you have lost and will never get back because of your own actions, the liberty you no longer possess.
“I am enjoying my life to the fullest. It’s not because of you but rather it’s because of everything you have taken from me.”
The young woman said her father’s actions had pushed an irreversible wedge into the family and impacted every relationship in her life.
Her father, she said, had destroyed the concept of the word “family” for her.
“You have filled me with so much anger that my blood boils but, unlike you, I have control,” she said.
“I can maintain a healthy balance, however, the hatred will always remain strong.”
The young woman’s now 51-year-old father watched her from the dock, where he sat in custody, as she read her victim impact statement.
The court heard that the man had sexually abused his now 18-year-old daughter for 11 years, sometimes every second day.
The abuse included sex and others acts.
Man hands himself in
Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald told the court that in July 2021 the man had gone to a regional police station west of Brisbane and handed himself into police, declaring himself to be a paedophile.
He confessed to sexually abusing both of his young daughters but the younger daughter, when interviewed by police, did not make any allegations against him.
His barrister, Jens Streit, said that he told police during a recorded interview that “garbage like me should not be on the street” and declared himself to be “the worst kind of feral pig there is around”.
The man had pleaded guilty to all the charges.
Since being in prison the man had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, suffered depression and suicidal ideation, at one time taken from prison to hospital after a suicide attempt.
In sentencing, Judge Paul Smith summed up the case, saying that the abuse started when the man’s daughter was just four years of age and it had involved sexual acts that had occurred “a couple of hundred to 1,000 times”, nearly every second day.
“It is really disgusting behaviour involving your own daughters, unbelievable that a father would do that,” Judge Smith remarked.
He said the behaviour involved emotional blackmail causing his daughter to scream out in pain during a rape offence.
Judge Smith said that the man had confessed to his wife and was allowed to continue living at the family home and had also confessed to his local church.
He said the man’s wife had taken no action and that he could understand how isolated the children must have felt.
Judge Smith said that punishment, deterrence and denunciation were crucial in deciding a sentence.
He pointed out that the man had brought his own behaviour to the attention of the police, had pleaded guilty and had no criminal history — all of which had reduced the sentence he otherwise would have been handed.
A ‘high risk of reoffending’
An expert’s report, tendered to the court, described the man’s risk of reoffending as moderate or high.
The man was sentenced to a maximum of 12 years on the most serious charges and other sentences, ranging from two to nine years were handed down, all to be served concurrently.
The man stood in the dock, his arms crossed and shaking his head occasionally as Judge Smith chronicled his years of abusing his daughters.
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