Gold Coast stepdad sentenced for child sex offences

Seven years since a young woman first tried to report her stepfather to police for raping and molesting her and her friends as children, he has finally been sentenced. WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

A Gold Coast woman’s fight to put her pedophile stepfather behind bars has ended after he was sentenced in the Southport District Court on February 26, 2025. Picture: stock.

A Gold Coast stepfather who molested and raped his stepdaughter and her friends on multiple occasions has been jailed more than a decade after the offending occurred.

The Southport District Court heard gut-churning details of how the man, who was supposed to care for the victims, instead perverted their sleepovers and corrupted their childhood as he was sentenced on February 26.

Two days earlier the man, now in his 50s, pleaded guilty to two counts of rape, six counts of indecent treatment of a child under 12 under care, and four counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 under care.

Crown prosecutor Caitlin Usher told the court the offences were all committed between 2009 and 2013, when the girls were aged between 11 and 15. One of the girls was his stepdaughter, one was her cousin, and the other two were friends from school.

Ms Usher told the court the man regularly had care of the girls as his wife often worked night shifts.

She said it was on one these occasions that he perverted their sleepovers into a parent’s worst nightmare.

On the first occasion he gave his stepdaughter and her cousin shots of alcohol before he opened Omegle, a video chat website, on a computer.

He then lifted their shirts in front of the camera, exposing their 11 and 12-year-old chests to an internet stranger, Ms Usher said.

On another occasion, the man had the 11-year-old friend of his stepdaughter drink sour monkey alcohol.

Ms Usher said it was the first time she had drunk alcohol and blacked out. When she came to, she was on her friend’s bed and the man had his fingers in her vagina.

“(She) can’t remember how the event ended, but woke the next day to blood in her underwear and had a pain in her vagina for a few days,” Ms Usher said.

On another occasion, when the two friends were at the house with the stepdaughter, the man made a batch of cocktails and once they were drunk, had them take a shower together.

“(He) asked if they had ever touched each other and encouraged them to and demonstrated what to do with his fingers,” Ms Usher said.

At 14, the other friend also came to when the man’s fingers were already inside her.

“The defendant then removed his fingers from her vagina, stood up, licked his fingers and said that she had a nice pussy and laughed as he left the room,” Ms Usher said.

For Christmas one year, when she was 14 or 15, he gifted his stepdaughter a purple vibrator with a note attached telling her to “enjoy herself.”

He also gifted her cousin a pink vibrator when she was 15.

SOUTHPORT, AUSTRALIA - NewsWire Photos - 27 AUGUST, 2024:. Generic photo Southort Courthouse. Picture: NewsWire / Richard Gosling

“In 2018, (the stepdaughter) went to police and made a complaint but no investigation was carried out at that time,” Ms Usher said.

Two years later one of the friends told her boyfriend about what had happened to her as a child, and he encouraged her to go to police, Ms Usher said.

Police started investigating in 2020, but it took some months before the other girls also made complaints and statements.

The man was arrested on April 17, 2021.

The court heard the stepdaughter’s mother has separated from the man since he was charged.

On the day of his sentencing, one of the girls – now a young woman – tearfully read her victim impact statement, while two others had theirs read by Ms Usher.

The stepdaughter’s statement read that since the time she was 11, she had looked for ways to end her life.

“I was made to feel like no one would ever believe me and what I remembered was just in my head.”

One of the friends stood before the court and read her statement herself.

“When I did drive [near the offender’s house] because I had to, my memories were rape and molestation,” she read.

“The house I was raped in is right next to the M1 and every time I drive past I think about the event.”

Throughout the narration of the victim impact statements, the man look incredulous and disbelieving, muttering to himself at times.

The defence offered no reason or excuse for the offending, but said the man had a troubled upbringing.

As the man was told by Justice Deborah Holliday he would spend at least the next 17 months behind bars, the women, accompanied by partners and family, watched from the gallery.

He was sentenced to five years imprisonment, with a parole eligibility date of August 21, 2026. Four days spent in pre-sentence custody was declared as time served.

Convictions were recorded for all counts.

Originally published as Gold Coast stepdad sentenced for child sex offences