Pedophile guilty of grooming and raping a minor believes he did nothing wrong

The defence counsel of a former longstanding SES volunteer who groomed a child almost 60 years younger than him before raping her, said he has no remorse as he does not accept the guilty verdict.

A 72-year-old Mount Gambier man who was found guilty of grooming a young girl before raping her, says he has “no remorse”.

Harold Climas, who was found guilty by a jury back in November of last year, believes he did not commit the crimes he was found guilty of.

“He doesn’t accept the verdicts … he has no contrition and no remorse,” Climas’ defence counsel said.

“It was a one off occasion … he is not a serious repeat offender.”

Climas appeared via video link in the Adelaide District Court earlier this week for further sentencing submissions.

Harold James Climas during his arrest for sexually assaulting a child. Picture: Supplied

He was found guilty of one count of aggravated indecent assault, unlawful sexual intercourse with a person under 14 years and attempted unlawful sexual intercourse with a person under 14 years in the Mount Gambier District Court.

All three charges in relation to the 2017 sexual assault.

During the trial, the court heard, Climas had picked the victim up from an event before heading back to Climas’ house.

The two watched a number of movies before eventually retiring to separate rooms.

“She was woken in the middle of the night needing to get a drink of water after having a dry throat,” the prosecutor said at the time of the trial.

When the victim returned to the guestroom she found “the accused laying a short distance away”.

“She asked him what he was doing, to which he replied that he just wanted some company,” the prosecutor said.

“The accused moved closer towards the complainant before placing his hand up her shirt.”

The court heard Climas then touched the victim’s “parts” before “he tried to stick his part in” but failed to penetrate the victim “giving up after a couple of tries”.

Climas had also bought gifts and taken her to Kmart after the assault.

Climas’ defence counsel told the court that their client’s health had begun to decline since being in prison – having developed a tremor in his hand and having incurred recent falls.

“He’s clearly unwell … there has been a decline since he’s been in prison,” defence counsel said.

“There is evidence of ... less capacity to understand it.”

Climas will return for sentence later this year.