Man admits to sexually abusing stepdaughter for years while living in the Illawarra

A man has admitted to subjecting his stepdaughter to years of horrific sexual abuse when she was a young girl, a court has heard.

A man has admitted he sexually abused his stepdaughter for years in their Illawarra homes.

A man has admitted to subjecting his stepdaughter to years of horrific sexual abuse when she was a young girl, a court has heard.

A 60-year-old man appeared from jail on remand in Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday where he entered guilty pleas to five counts of sexual and indecent assault.

Agreed facts tendered to court said the man, who cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity, abused his stepdaughter from 1987 to 2000 with his crimes having “impacted heavily on the victim and her family who are still trying to cope with the enormity of the [man’s] actions”.

Police said the man “demonstrated predatory behaviour by taking advantage of the tender age of the victim and … the victim’s mother who was single at the time and extremely vulnerable”.

Police also noted he was intimidatory and violent towards the mother and daughter, which prevented them from reporting the abuse to police sooner.

The man sexually assaulted his stepdaughter, calling it “tickling”.

The victim’s mother and the man began living together in Windang after they started dating when the daughter was one year old.

The victim, who is now aged in her 30s, recalls being sexually assaulted by the man on numerous occasions, adding that he would buy her anything she wanted and enjoyed seeing her in nice dresses.

The victim told police she was able to remember the assaults by recalling significant incidents that occurred at the time.

The woman told police about one incident in 1992 when her mother had left the house due to verbal and physical abuse.

As a girl, she was woken up to her stepfather pulling her pants down and he performed cunnilingus on her for a few minutes.

The woman said after each time he would say “sorry” and he referred to the assaults as “tickling”.

Another assault occurred after she told her stepfather “I don’t want to be tickled anymore” but later that night he did it again.

The man pleaded guilty in Wollongong Local Court.

On another occasion the woman recalled the man rubbed her vagina over her swimsuit when she was six or seven when she sat on his lap.

The stepfather’s abuse escalated when the girl was 11 or 12 and they were laying on the lounge watching television, while the mother was working, when he pulled her pants down and thrust his penis on the outside of her vagina.

He again performed cunnilingus on the girl when she was 13 years old and the victim remembers it because it was the only time she recalls being assaulted while her mother was home.

The couple ended the relationship when the victim was 15 years old and she had not seen him since with court documents revealing he lived in Chermside, Queensland at the time of his arrest.

In 2003 the victim told her mother and aunty she had been sexually abused as a child and at the time she typed out her statement recounting the assaults, titled “a little girl’s secret” which her aunt kept.

The woman reported the abuse to police in 2020 and the man pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10; two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 16 and indecent assault of a child under 10.

In court on Wednesday, an apprehended violence order was also finalised prohibiting the man from trying to find his former stepdaughter for the rest of her life.

The case was adjourned to fix a hearing date on March 1 in Wollongong District Court.

Originally published as Man admits to sexually abusing stepdaughter for years while living in the Illawarra