Bundaberg father pleads guilty to 11 child sex abuse offences

A court has heard the chilling details of how a father preyed upon his young daughters, aged between 10 and 15, and the ‘absurd’ explanation he offered when caught in the act.

A Bundaberg father sexually assaulted his two daughters multiple times while they were aged between 10 and 15, including during fishing trips and driving lessons, a court has heard.

The man, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the victims, appeared in the dock at Bundaberg District Court on Wednesday where he pleaded guilty to 11 charges, including seven counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 (lineal descendant, domestic violence offence), three counts of rape (domestic violence offence) and one count of attempted indecent treatment of a child under 16 (lineal descendant, domestic violence offence).

The court heard the man’s offending started on a fishing trip while he was alone with one of his daughters and when the girl reported the offending to her mother, she was not believed.

On the next occasion, the man abused his daughter while her brother was on the boat with them.

He also abused his daughter while giving her remedial massages and checking her for rashes.

When the girl reported her father’s actions to the police, he denied them. Fearing she would not be believed, she did not pursue the matter any further.

After the complaint, the man stopped offending against that daughter, but “wasn’t deterred”. Instead, he turned his attention to abusing his other daughter.

On one occasion, the girls’ mother walked in on the defendant and the second daughter, and when asked what he was doing with her, he told her, and later the police, that he had been acting on her request to check her for “black hairs”.

Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald deemed it an “absurd explanation”.

The court heard one of the girls was just 10 years old when she was preyed upon by her own father.

Ms Friedewald told the court the man had ignored his children’s requests to stop during the time he abused them.

While abusing one sister at the family home, it was heard he ignored the child’s plea for the assault to end.

“She asked him to stop, he did nothing,” Ms Friedwald said.

On another occasion in the family car, the father also failed to cease his actions.

“She told him to stop, he ignored that request and continued,” she said.

Ms Friedwald said it was hard to imagine a more significant breach of trust than sexual offending by a father against a daughter.

“There was a real risk of detection and an element of brazenness to the offending,” she told the court.

Defence barrister Phil Hardcastle said his client had been living in Cooroy with his mother and no longer interacted with his former partner or his daughters.

It was heard he had worked a number of different jobs before finding himself out of work with back, knee and neck problems and possible spurs in his feet.

In sentencing, Judge John Allan said the girls had been “grossly betrayed” by their father, whose role it was to offer them protection.

“It’s hard to imagine a more gross breach of trust,” he said.

Judge Allan termed it “grossly concerning” that the man had turned his attention away from one girl and to the other after police were initially contacted.

The man received a head sentence of four years and six months jail, and will be eligible for parole from March 28, 2024.