Father’s sexual abuse of his child

A YOUNG girl has endured years of horrific abuse by her father who sexually assaulted her more than 200 times over four years.

The girl was just six years old when her father made her perform sexual acts for him.

The Bulletin cannot name the man, 50, to protect the identity of his daughter.

It wasn’t until a month before the child’s 10th birthday that the offending stopped, when the girl told her mum what had been happening.

Crown prosecutor Amanda Payne told Judge Julie Dick SC the man told his daughter what they were doing was “a secret and not to tell her mother”.

“Making the complainant masturbate him in the shower with soap and on most occasions they showered together which was approximately 200 occasions over the period,” she said. Ms Payne said the man threatened the girl and if she refused, the man told her “she had to” and on one occasion the man offered her money.

The court heard the abuse ceased only after the girl asked her mother for help.

After the man was arrested by police, he originally said his daughter instigated the masturbation but eventually admitted he would ask his daughter to “wash his penis”.

The man pleaded guilty to

YOU ARE THE NATURAL FATHER AND THAT USUALLY MEANS YOU NATURALLY PROTECT YOUR CHILD AND YOU DIDN’T, YOU TOOK ADVANTAGE OF HER.

five charges including maintain unlawful relationship with a child.

Defence barrister for the man Dane Marley told Judge Dick SC his client suffered from a range of health issues.

“When he was three months old he suffered a significant right side cerebral abscess and as a result of that has had difficulties with his body throughout his life,” he said. “He has no use of his left arm and he also has cerebral palsy.”

Judge Dick SC told the man he had “indulged himself” and used his daughter for his “pleasure”.

“You have betrayed your trust to her in a very, very severe way and over a lengthy period of time,” she said. “You are the natural father and that usually means you naturally protect your child and you didn’t, you took advantage of her.”

The man was sentenced to three years’ jail. A parole eligibility date was set at September 28 next year.

A QUEENSLAND road safety expert says the plan to upgrade Queensland’s bitumen spine to four lanes needs to include investment in road safety technology.

Opposition leader Deb Frecklington has promised $50m to map a detailed blueprint to turn the Bruce Highway into a dual carriageway along its 1677km stretch.

University of the

Sunshine Coast Road Safety Research Professor Jeremy Davey questioned whether the plan would include money for modern safety technology like mobile phone cameras or point-topoint speed cameras.

“As you roll out better infrastructure you have to roll out better safety infrastructure,” he said.

“Are they funding that technology at the same time? If we spend money on infrastructure but forget about behavioural road safety issues it can reduce certain characteristics of crashes, but consider speed or fatigue.”

Four people have died on the Bruce Highway in Townsville since the start of September.

Mr Davey said more point-to-point speed cameras could help improve safety on the highway.

“You have to monitor speed and rest spots and point-to-point cameras are particularly important,” he said.

The system uses two separate cameras located along different points of the road and can determine if a vehicle travelled faster than the speed limit in that section by reading and matching number plates.