Man stands trial accused sexual relationship with his 10-year-old stepdaughter in Keith
A man sexually assaulted his young stepdaughter as her sister slept in the bunk bed below, a court has heard.
Mount Gambier
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A man frequently waited for his 10-year-old stepdaughter to fall asleep only to wake her up and sexually abuse her while her sister slept in the bunk bed below, a court has heard.
Two decades on, the man is standing trial at the Mount Gambier District Court this week.
He is accused of maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child, unlawful sexual intercourse with a child and indecent assault.
In his opening to the jury, prosecutor Dr Peter Salu said the victim, now in her 30s, was “terrified” of what the “violent” accused would do if she told anyone what her stepfather had done.
“She was scared for her mum, she was scared for herself and for her siblings,” Dr Salu said.
Dr Salu detailed a list of indecent acts that he said began when the victim was 10 years old and living in Keith.
He alleged the man would wake his stepdaughter as he entered her bedroom before lying down on the top bunk next to her, and sexually assault her.
“It was not a fatherly embrace,” Dr Salu said.
“It was so frequent and so regular … she can’t divide the differences between the occasions.”
The court heard when the victim’s mother and stepfather separated in 2001 they moved to Murray Bridge and the offending stopped – with the exception of one incident around her 12th birthday.
The accused allegedly pulled over on the South Eastern Freeway on the way to Keith from Adelaide, and sexually assaulted her in the front seat of the car while other children were asleep in the back.
Later in Keith he assaulted her again, it is alleged.
While giving evidence, the victim’s mother described the family’s daily routine.
She told the court she would put the children to bed at 7.30pm, clean up the kitchen and watch television before going to bed while her partner at the time stayed up watching movies.
“He came into our room, he would see if I was asleep and then he would go to the girls room,” she said.
“I could hear them talking.”
Her “mother’s instinct” kicked in and she asked her daughter several times if the stepfather had touched her.
“I just had a gut feeling as a mother but I couldn’t prove anything and I was very scared.”
She detailed her eight-year relationship with the accused, telling the court “he kicked me with his steel caps down the stairs”, broke her nose with a “king hit” and was knocked unconscious after he pushed her and she hit her head on the stove.
It was not until the victim’s 14th birthday that she told her mother about the assault on the side of the freeway.
“I took her straight to the Mount Barker Police Station,” she said
“We done a statement but (the victim) was too young to take her through all of that.”
The court heard there was no record of an official statement at that time and the victim returned to the police in 2017.
The accused, now in his 50s, was interviewed by police in early 2018 with the video recording played to the court.
When told of the allegations he laughed, stating he never bathed or hit his stepdaughter only disciplining her by sending her to her room.
“It’s a f**king joke,” he said. “It’s bullsh*t, end of story.”
He said the charges were revenge from the victim’s mother who had instigated years of “lethal violence” against him, telling the police she had attempted to run him over with a car and “smashed me in the head with a beer bottle twice”.
“In my opinion (the children) should have been taken away from the lot of us,” he said.
The man, who was a panel beater at the time, said he often looked after his children and the children of others while he worked in the backyard.
The trial continues in the Mount Gambier District Court.
