Sex attack on girl, 13

A MAN has been jailed for sexually assaulting his father’s friend’s daughter, then 13, during a family holiday at Crystal Creek.

The man, 35, pleaded guilty in Townsville District Court on Friday to two counts of indecent treatment of a child.

Crown prosecutor Andrew Walklate said the group was staying at a hut in Easter 2014 when, one night, the girl woke to find the man assaulting her, his hands down her pants.

He then put his hand up her shirt and committed the second act of indecent treatment.

“She went to the bathroom, the defendant was still in bed when she returned, she moved as far away from him as she could,” Mr Walklate said.

The girl’s mother woke the next morning, came into the room and saw the man spooning the girl.

“The complainant was upset but she put a brave face on it. She told her mother she was fine and that she didn’t want to talk about it,” Mr Walklate said.

Two years later, the girl saw someone at her school who reminded her of the man and it triggered her to speak to the school’s guidance counsellor and make a report to police.

The man was arrested and interviewed by police.

He said he was very drunk on the night and remembered touching and spooning the girl.

Defence barrister Gregory Lynham said the man was a chronic alcoholic who was in the grip of a severe addiction to alcohol at the time.

Two weeks after the night, the man checked into a threemonth rehabilitation course at the Salvation Army.

Mr Lynham said the man had made no contact with the girl since 2014.

“The offending did not entail some of the more serious aspects of predatory or grooming type behaviour,” he said.

Judge Leanne Clare the “traumatic experience” had been exacerbated by the man sleeping the night in the girl’s bed.

“It is clear that ( the girl) was very frightened that night. The next morning, she was too upset to talk about it. She thought that she would be in trouble,” she said.

The judge said the man appeared to be genuinely remorseful and had no criminal history.

He was sentenced to 15 months in jail, suspended after four months.