Jailed: Man, 61, groped child, 8

A family has been torn apart by a 61-year-old man who abused the trust placed in him by repeatedly assaulting his stepgranddaughter.

The man, whose identity cannot be revealed as doing so would identify his victim, abused the then eight-year-old girl on 10 occasions between September and October 2022 at his South Toowoomba home.

On Wednesday, the Toowoomba District Court was told the man repeatedly groped the young girl, touching her genitalia and rubbing his genitalia on her.

During the assault he grabbed the girl’s bottom and said “yum yum”. On another occasion he told the girl she was “hot and sexy”.

The girl told her father about the abuse on October 16, 2022 and he immediately reported the matter to the police.

The Crown prosecutor said during the man’s initial interview with investigators, he attempted to push blame on to the girl, claiming she made sexual advances towards him.

“(The girl) said she struggles to sleep, felt trapped and scared, and interactions with her brothers reminds her of the offending,” the prosecutor said.

Police conducted a forensic investigation of the man’s laptop and found evidence of 25 images of girls aged five-10 years old in a range of sexualised positions.

The court was told these images were deleted after the man’s offending came to the attention of police.

That forensic examination also found the man had accessed several websites that published child exploitation material.

In sentencing, Judge Deborah Richards said the man’s offending against the girl was aggravated by the fact he had also accessed child exploitation material

“The fact that you are accessing that material indicates this is not just isolated offending,” she said.

“It signifies sexual interest in girls under 10.

“You were quite manipulative towards the little girl, you said if she told anyone you would get into trouble with the police and there would be no more Pop.

“When you were arrested you tried to shift the blame on to her.”

The man pleaded guilty to 10 counts of indecent treatment of a child under his care, and one commonwealth offence of using a carriage service to access child exploitation material.

He was sentenced to three years’ jail for the indecent treatment offences and six months’ jail for the commonwealth offence.

Justice Richards took into account the 570 days the man spent in pre-sentence custody and ordered an immediate parole eligibility date.