Queensland couple sentenced for sexual abuse of daughters after fleeing to FNQ

A Queensland couple started sexually abusing their two daughters under the guise of “sexual education” when the girls were just eight and six years old, a Cairns court has heard. **Warning distressing content**

A Queensland couple sexually abused their daughters for years under the guise of “sexual education”.

A Queensland couple started sexually abusing their two daughters under the guise of “sexual education” when the girls were just eight and six years old, a Cairns court has heard.

The couple, aged in their fifties, cannot be named to protect their daughters’ identities.

The mother pleaded guilty to two charges of indecent treatment of a child under 12 in her care.

Prosecutor Shauna Farrelly told the court the offences occurred between 2009 and 2011 when the mother masturbated the children’s stepfather in front of them, claiming it was “sexual education”.

Ms Farrelly submitted this act was “manipulation against the girls which opened the gate” to further abuse.
She noted the mother was aware of later offending but wasn’t charged with failing to report child abuse as it wasn’t a prescribed offence at the time.

The stepfather pleaded guilty to 38 charges, including two charges of indecent treatment of a child under 12, 29 charges of indecent treatment of a child under 16, two charges of repeated sexual contact with a child, one attempted rape and two counts of rape.

Ms Farrelly described years of “appalling” sexual, physical and emotional abuse occurring on an “almost weekly basis” as the girls were pitted against each other for affection.

The court heard police conducted a welfare check after concerns were raised by the girls’ older sister.

Following this, the couple praised the daughters for not disclosing anything, telling them not to discuss the family’s nudity in case it was “read the wrong way”.

Now young women, the victims bravely confronted their abusers in court.

One told her mother: “You have never been my mother and you never will be. I felt alone, feeling like I was drowning.”

A Queensland couple have been jailed for the sexual abuse of their two daughters for years.

To her stepfather, she said he “pretended to be a father and a friend” and that, “I only started living in 2024 when I finally used my voice”.

Her sister said her mother “still believed my abuser was her soulmate” and told the court, “I was terrified. Death felt like the only way out”.

The abuse only ceased when one daughter disclosed suicidal feelings to a friend.

During a subsequent “family meeting”, the mother supported her husband’s actions and told her daughter “she was lucky for it”.

The couple later fled to Far North Queensland, ceasing to use phones and bank accounts before being arrested in 2024.

The sexual abuse of the daughters only ceased when one girl disclosed suicidal feelings to a friend.

The woman’s defence counsel, Rachel Logan, told the court the woman was a victim of sexual abuse herself and had turned to alcohol to help her deal with her past.

“She understands she failed to protect her children and did not understand she was being controlled by him,” she said.

Defence counsel for the man, Aaron Dunkerton, told the court he was “disgusted in himself” and acknowledged his offending was wrong.

He said the man was also a victim of childhood abuse, was a heavy drinker, and had turned to the use of cannabis and psychedelic mushrooms which left him in a “warped reality”.

Judge Anthony Rafter SC told the pair: “These children should expect them to be their protectors, instead they manipulated them for sexual gratification.”

The mother received a two-and-a-half-year sentence with release after 447 days served, plus three years’ probation.

The stepfather was sentenced to nine-and-a-half years’ imprisonment, with parole eligibility after serving half.

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Originally published as Queensland couple sentenced for sexual abuse of daughters after fleeing to FNQ