Northern suburbs man jailed after sexually abusing, degrading teenage girl in parents’ cellar
An Adelaide man has been jailed for more than 15 years after impregnating a teenage girl in his parents’ cellar, where she felt “trapped and degraded”.
A northern suburbs man has been jailed for nearly two decades after impregnating a teenage girl following years of “degrading” torment inside his parents’ cellar.
The man, who cannot be named to avoid identifying his victim, appeared in the District Court last month after being convicted by a jury of one count of sexual abuse of a child.
During sentencing, Judge Ian White acknowledged the man’s victim was banned from using bathroom facilities “without permission” and was, at times, forced to “crudely and disgustingly use a bucket”.
“As she told me in the victim impact statement, the way you treated her was: ‘less than an animal’,” Judge White said. “‘I was made to feel trapped, degraded, and stripped of my dignity’.
“She has suffered almost all of the known effects of child sexual abuse, including a feeling of a loss of innocence, development of serious mental health issues – including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety – and being, as she put it ‘stripped of most of my childhood and my innocence’.
“She has had a child to you, a son. Remarkably, she lets you and your parents have a relationship with him. This generous attitude is to her credit given what you have done to her.”
During the trial, the jury heard the man was driving throughout the northern suburbs with a friend in 2010 when he noticed the girl on the side of the road.
He stopped the car and invited her to get in, the jury was told, “on the basis that she might want to ‘party’”.
“The three of you then went to your cousin’s house where all of you smoked cannabis and methylamphetamine, and drank alcohol – before going back to your parents’ house,” Judge White said. “That house had a cellar that could be accessed separately from the main house.
“On the second time you caught up with her, you took her back to your parents’ cellar, where drinking and the consumption of marijuana occurred. What followed was the first act of intercourse with her. This marked the beginning of the sexual relationship where you would see her most weekends and have intercourse at your parents’ place.
“She was not allowed to go near the main house, nor use any bathroom facilities without permission. The cellar had no running water and no bathroom, so she was forced at times to crudely and disgustingly use a bucket.”
The offending, the court heard, lasted until 2014 when the victim gave birth to the man’s son.
During sentencing, Judge White noted the man had, in February this year, been jailed for eight years for the separate sexual abuse “of another child”.
Last month, he sentenced the man to 16 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 10 years – backdated to November 25, 2024.
