Victim tells of anguish

Court hears of lasting impact of childhood sex assault

A VICTIM of sexual assault as a child has told a court how his life was shattered after he was abused.

The man, now in his late 40s, was a teenager in the 1980s and lived in Geelong when a male he knew sexually penetrated and indecently assaulted him.

“The assault ... led to me battling with anxiety and depression from a young age,” the victim told the court in a statement read to the Geelong County Court.

“My mother recalls I went from being a happy, carefree boy to being withdrawn and anxious all the time.

“A sexual assault by another (male) makes you question your masculinity and makes you question whether you are a real man because you were not strong enough to stop it.

“I recall wetting my pants sometimes because the anxiety was overwhelming.

“I remember being so fearful of being around other people that I deliberately hid in the backyard so I would miss the only bus that took me to school.”

At one point during the offending in late 1980s, the perpetrator, who the Geelong Advertiser cannot name for legal reasons, told the boy there was no use stopping because they had gone so far.

In the years since the offending, the victim has made attempts to take his life, and used drugs and alcohol to numb the pain he felt after the incident, the court heard.

The victim shared the impact of the crimes against him during a hearing on Tuesday, where the man responsible for the crimes – aged in his late teens at the time of the offences but now in his early 50s – pleaded guilty to four charges.

The perpetrator was 17 at the time of the offending and was involved in his own “sexual aberrations”, the court heard.

The court was told the man behind the crimes selfreported to police in 2020 when he heard the incident would be reported to police.

The court heard the perpetrator was frank, honest and detailed in his recollections of the crimes.

Judge Geoff Chettle said there were a number of factors that would mitigate the man’s sentence, including his age at the time and remorse he had shown since.

At the time of offending a three-year suspended sentence could be imposed, and the maximum penalty for indecent assault was five years jail while the maximum for sexual penetration of a child was 10 years.

The perpetrator will be sentenced on January 27.