Man abused stepdaughter

A TOOWOOMBA man who regularly molested his young stepdaughter over a four-year period but asked her to pray with him for forgiveness afterwards has been jailed.

The girl had been aged eight or nine when the man married her mother and took the family into his home in the early 1990s, Toowoomba District Court heard.

The girl’s mother had encouraged her husband to have a fatherly relationship with the children, and the girl had been allowed to shower with him, Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald told the court.

However, he had routinely molested the girl when her mother was out at Sunday evening church meetings, she said.

The man had been aged in his 30s at the time and the girl eight to 12 or 13, the court heard.

The man, who is not named so as to protect the identity of the victim, pleaded guilty to maintaining a sexual relationship with a girl under 12 and under 16.

Ms Friedewald said on occasions after he had molested her, the man would suggest that they pray together for forgiveness.

He had also manipulated the child by telling her that her mother would be very hurt if she found out.

The relationship stopped after the man took the girl on a camping trip during which he told her they were both wrong for what had been happening and that was the last time, Ms Friedewald said.

The girl had grown up to be married and have children of her own before she told her mother about it in July 2017.

Her mother then confronted the man who apologised but told her the girl had instigated the relationship, Ms Friedewald said.

When he was challenged about blaming a child for what had occurred, the man had admitted he had instigated it all.

However, even though he had made admissions to his conduct when spoken to by police in 2018, the man had tried to downplay his offending by saying it only occurred

“once or twice a year”, the court heard.

In her victim impact statement, the victim woman said she still had trouble sleeping and had nightmares due to the abuse.

She accused her stepfather of taking advantage of her and “stealing her childhood”.

She said she felt disgusted that she hadn’t had the guts to say something at the time, Ms Friedewald said.

The victim’s mother, who was in court for the sentence hearing, also provided a victim impact statement in which she said she feared losing her daughter and grandchildren after finding out and that it was a “great sadness” to her that all of her children felt they had to move away from Toowoomba after finding out about the man’s offending.

Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren SC told the man his offending was a “gross breach of trust”.

Noting he had no previous criminal history, Judge Horneman-Wren sentenced him to four and a half years in jail but ordered the term be suspended after he has served 18 months.

peter.hardwick@thechronicle.com.au