Abuser stepmum guilty

IN A home in Cairns that was sometimes full of alcohol and violence, a 12-year-old boy would be woken in the night by his naked stepmother sitting on the side of his bed, sexually abusing him.

More than three decades later, the now 74-year-old woman has been brought to justice, found guilty by a jury in the Cairns District Court of eight counts of indecent treatment of a child under the age of 16 .

As the jury read out guilty verdicts, the boy, now a man, began sobbing in the public gallery.

The shame and guilt he had felt for 33 years was no longer on his shoulders, and as he later described outside court, his stepmother had been “held accountable for what she did to me”.

The complainant said it was hard for men to come forward with a complaint of sexual abuse because of the stigma. “I’d certainly encourage people to really dig deep … and men who have been victims, to find the strength and come forward because it’ll help them sort of get on with life,” he said.

He also thanked police and prosecutors for their work in helping bring the case to its final conclusion.

During the trial, the court heard the offences had occurred between October 1988 and June 1990, after the boy had moved to Cairns to live with his father and stepmother. Of the eight charges, four involved sexual abuse.

Tendering a victim impact statement, Crown prosecutor Stephanie Williams told the court the offences had a “significant impact”.

Chief Judge Brian Devereaux SC said he accepted the jury’s verdict as evidence the stepmother not only committed the offences, but that they occurred in a context.

“You and his father would be drinking, there would be an argument, and there would be violence by the father against you. It was common ground that you and the father slept naked each night,” he said.

“In the context of that violence, that intoxication, you would take yourself into the boy’s room and commit these offences.

“It was almost like it was a refuge from the violence. It was a terrible thing to do to the boy.”

Defence barrister Rachelle Logan submitted that in sentencing, Judge Devereaux ought to take into account her client’s age, her medical conditions, and her lack of offending over the last 33 years.

The woman was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, suspended after serving eight months.