Dad indecently assaulted his daughter

While her mother was out, a sleeping teenager became the target of her father’s indecent advances, a court was told.

The man, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the young victim, made three attempts to touch the girl while she was asleep in the lounge of their family home in Taranaki, the Ha¯ wera District Court heard.

Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a female aged between 12-16 years, along with breaching a protection order.

The sex offending involved three attempts by the man to indecently assault his daughter between January and June of this year.

The summary of facts said on the first occasion the teen was asleep in the lounge with her other siblings. The girl’s mother had gone away for the night.

‘‘She kept waking because she thought there was something in her bed. She felt the defendant stroke her back,’’ the summary of facts said.

Months later, the victim was again sleeping in the lounge. Her mother and siblings were away from the home on an overnight school trip.

The girl was on a mattress and her father was lying on another bed.

‘‘At some stage during the evening the victim woke to find the defendant pulling at her pants trying to manoeuvre his hand into the top of her pants.’’

When the victim opened her eyes, her father immediately removed his hand.

The girl went back to sleep and the defendant again put his hand under the blanket. In order to fend of any more attempts, the victim wrapped the blanket tightly around her.

Hours later she felt him trying to pull the blanket down again and put his hands underneath it.

When the girl opened her eyes, her father took his hand away. The victim stayed awake for the rest of the night until her father got up and went to work.

The indecent assault is a breach of a final protection order granted against the defendant in September 2006.

At the Ha¯wera District Court hearing, the man’s lawyer Jo Woodcock argued that his registration on the child sex offender’s register would not be required and that a community-based sentence was appropriate as a penalty.

Sergeant Steve Hickey said an aggravating factor of the offending was the breach of trust involved and the victim had shown ‘‘courage’’ to try and stop what was happening to her.

Judge Chris Sygrove said the impact the offending had on the teenaged girl was significant. ‘‘She’s effectively lost a father figure in her life due to these actions.’’

The judge said following his arrest the man had spent six months in prison on remand and had essentially lost everything.

The case was remanded until December 13 for sentencing.