Jail for child rape

Man, 72, assaulted granddaughter

THE full impact of the rape of a four-year-old girl by her 72-year-old grandfather will not be known until the girl is older, a court has been told.

The grandfather will spend at least the next eight years in jail after being sentenced in the Southport District Court yesterday to 10 years’ prison for two counts each of rape and inwhat decent treatment of a child under 12. He is required to serve at least 80 per cent of the sentence after being declared a serious violent offender.

The man, who cannot be named, was found guilty of two counts of rape and two counts of indecent treatment of a child under 12 after a two-day trial.

He yesterday pleaded not guilty to indecent treatment of another girl.

The Bulletin can also reveal the man was convicted of indecently touching a woman in 1964 when he was 18. He served a month in prison and was placed on 12 months probation.

Judge David Kent said the man showed no remorse.

“Your actions have put a wrecking ball through the entire family,” he said.

The man raped the girl twice in the family home and touched her sexually twice. The man was babysitting the girl at the time.

The incidents occurred between May 2016 and March last year.

“It is too early to say the eventual impacts on this young girl will be,” said Judge Kent.

The court heard the man’s wife of more than 40 years had left him after the incidents were revealed.

Defence barrister Peter Nolan said the man was “penniless and homeless”.

The man did not react when sentenced. He is expected to face trial for indecently touching the other girl in the coming months.