A father who raped his newborn daughter and then forced his son to do the same to the child has been sentenced to life in prison.
The north Queensland man, whose name cannot be released to protect the children’s identity, pleaded guilty to 87 charges in the Townsville District Court this week and showed no emotion as he was sentenced on Tuesday.
Crown prosecutor Monique Sheppard said he deserved the maximum punishment for his “heinous” crimes.
Among the Townsville man’s victims was his biological daughter, whom he began sexually abusing when she was just a week old.
He also filmed and distributed the abuse to others online, the court heard.
Police searched his property in 2020 after being tipped off by a woman to whom he had sent disturbing text messages. The Townsville Bulletin reported.
The search uncovered children’s underwear and images of videos of him raping his young daughter.
“The offence committed against her was indeed so serious, so heinous, so deliberate and so atrocious that it warrants a sentence of the maximum term of imprisonment,” Ms Sheppard said.
A Townsville man has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to raping his young daughter, filming and distributing it, and a host of other offences (file photo)
The man was charged with rape, indecent treatment of a child under 12 years of age of direct descent, bestiality, production, supply and possession of child exploitation, theft and supply of drugs.
The Crown prosecutor told the court that photographs found by police during their search documented 11 instances in which the man sexually abused his infant daughter until she was 20 months old.
The images showed the man raping his daughter using his fingers, penis and other objects, the court was told.
One of the videos appeared to show the abuse occurring in a mall bathroom locker room.
The full extent of the man’s crimes is unknown as he refused to tell police where he had stored the videos.
The girl’s mother told the court in her victim impact statement that her daughter returned from unsupervised visits with her father “uneasy, crying and with redness around her private parts.”
She was ‘crying in pain, saying ‘daddy touched her’ and pointing at her genitals while changing her diaper,’ the mother said.
‘Communication, trust, honor, truthfulness, loyalty, respect and family were words that had a very important meaning in my life, shattered by the animal lust of a father for his own daughter.’
The woman heard how she met the man online and, after becoming pregnant, began seeking legal advice after discovering he had strange fetishes that made her fear for her daughter’s safety.
The man’s family signed an order promising to monitor all visits between him and his daughter.
But after hiring a private investigator, the baby’s mother was able to prove that the meetings had not been monitored.
She told the court that since the abuse, her young daughter suffers nightmares, talks about suicidal thoughts and is unable to show affection to other family members.
The man’s daughter was sexually abused at least 11 times over a 19-month period, the court heard (file photo)
The man had another child with another woman and the boy is a week younger than his daughter. He got the child for raping his half-sister and filming it.
In another crime uncovered by the Crown, another woman accused the man of asking her to have a sexual relationship with her son.
The woman had been sexually involved with the man for a short time before he asked her to “come have some fun” with his son, Sheppard said.
Prior to this relationship, the man had a relationship with a woman to whom he supplied methamphetamine in exchange for sex.
The woman had a 17-month-old daughter and the Crown said she sometimes woke up to find the man inside her apartment.
On one occasion, the man filmed himself sexually assaulting the woman while she was unconscious before turning his attention to the girl, who was also asleep, Sheppard said.
Further investigation by the police at the time revealed that Two other young women were filmed and sexually assaulted or forced to perform sexual acts by the man.
He refused to help identify any of the girls when questioned by authorities and they were later found to be the daughters of a woman to whom he had sold marijuana, the court heard.
Ms Sheppard said the man shared images and details of his abuse with others via the messaging app Kik, where he once told someone he wanted to… having sex with a child ‘as young as possible, one day old, one week old, as soon as possible’.
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Gregory Lynham She called the man a “predator” who had used mothers to gain access to their children and shared images of the subsequent abuse with others “who did not ask for that material.”
The man also sexually abused the daughter of a woman he supplied with methamphetamine, forced a woman to have sex with a dog and filmed his young son raping his baby (file photo)
Defence lawyer Claire Grant told the court her client had no previous criminal record and had been “completely abandoned” by his family and friends when the charges were made public.
His rejection by society “may not be surprising given the severity of his conduct,” Grant said, “but at the end of the day he is still a human being.”
Growing up, the man had been a “social outcast” at school and at home, where he frequently fought with his father.
The court was told the man had a history of drug addiction and He had struggled with mental health issues for most of his life.
Ms Grant said the man could not remember his offending due to these factors and that his early guilty plea demonstrated remorse.
Ms Grant suggested a 20-year prison sentence, which was dismissed out of hand by Judge Lynham in his sentencing on Tuesday.
Judge Lynham rejected the man’s claim that he had shown remorse for his unwillingness to assist police during their investigations, even going so far as to lie to them.
“It has been alleged that your drug addiction affected your memory, but I reject that claim. It was obvious from other evidence that you were well aware of your conduct,” Judge Lynham said.
‘His offending did not stem from his own admissions but from the images found (and this) can only be described as a reprehensible breach of trust.’
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