Seven months’ jail for historic sex offences

A MAN who pleaded guilty to historic child sex offences will be out of jail in seven months’ time, while his young victim will have to live with the trauma of his abuse forever.

The 46-year-old Cairns man, who cannot be named as it would identify his victim, pleaded guilty to one count of indecent dealing with a child under 12 under care and one count of indecent dealing with a child under 12, in the Cairns District Court on Friday.

The court was told the man’s offending occurred on two separate occasions in or about 2004 in Cairns. On the first occasion he was babysitting the six-year-old girl and while her mother and brother left the house to go to the shops he placed his hand inside her underwear and molested her.

On the second occasion, the court was told how the girl was at a relative’s house when, while other family members were outside, he took her into a bedroom and molested her in a similar manner.

Despite the girl making a complaint to her mother, and then police in 2006, Crown prosecutor Stephanie Williams told the court the investigation did not progress “for a number of reasons”.

In 2017, the man was sentenced for a number of child sex offences and became a reportable sex offender.

In August 2020, police were investigating breaches of his reporting conditions and were conducting a review of the man’s history when they unearthed the complaint from 2006. After speaking to the now young woman, Ms Williams said the police investigation was enlivened and the man was charged in September 2020.

In her victim impact statement read to the court by Ms Williams, the complainant said she still could not return to Cairns or visit family without being overwhelmed with emotion.

“I’ve had to live with the fact my complaints were never taken seriously,” she said. “And learn to cope with all the emotion and trust issues. It’s a difficult topic to talk about and near impossible for someone who hasn’t experienced it to provide support.

“Most recently I have had to go through and relive all my childhood trauma to hopefully get some justice and clarity.

“I will have to live with this forever.”

She also said she had found getting access to mental health support incredibly difficult. “I can’t help but feel the system has failed me,” she said.

Defence barrister Michael Dalton said his client grew up in a religious compound where he was exposed to sexualised behaviour from a young age.

Mr Dalton said his client had read the victim impact statement and acknowledged the impact he had caused.

The court also heard the man had undertaken two sex offenders programs while in jail for his earlier offending.

Judge Dean Morzone QC sentenced the man to 21 months’ imprisonment, partly suspended after serving seven months.