Judge jails 'despicable' father who raped his baby and abused his toddler
An unthinkably cruel Qld father joked as he abused his tiny children, sending Telegram clips so extreme an online predator raised the alarm. *Distressing.
A monster father who raped his baby girl for the amusement of others was busted because another online predator was so concerned by the vile conduct he called police.
The terrible offending happened when the “despicable” Mackay dad had been back in the region with his family in 2023.
Mackay District Court heard he took both his children for a shower during which he raped his 13-month-old daughter and molested his two-year-old son.
“He filmed himself doing that behaviour,” Crown Prosecutor Monique Sheppard told the court.
At the same time, he was describing his terrible acts to another via the encrypted messaging app Telegram.
They include: “That’s my son hahaha, he’s two”, “we just finished showers”, and “what would you have me do?” about his baby daughter.
He also sent the video of an act on his toddler son so depraved it will not be published.
“The (man’s) comments of his most grave offending against his own children continued … with other users and thankfully one of those … was so concerned as to the description which was provided that notwithstanding his own conduct reported the matter to police,” Ms Sheppard said.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested in Mackay and had spent 715 days in pre-sentence custody.
This week he pleaded guilty to one count of rape against his daughter, three counts of indecent treatment of a child under 12 as a lineal descendant against his son, 15 counts of making child exploitation material - seven of which involved an anonymising service, four counts of distributing child exploitation material using an anonymising service and possessing child exploitation using an anonymising service.
“Your children were so incredibly vulnerable … words are really inadequate to express just how despicable and disturbing your conduct was. It is conduct that tears at the very fabric of our society,” Judge Joshua Trevino KC said.
Ms Sheppard pushed for 10 years jail, submitting the man wrote about fantasising about his own children with others that culminated in the rape of his baby girl and sexual abuse of his toddler son.
Barrister Kim Bryson, instructed by Fisher Dore Lawyers for the man, argued for a maximum of nine years jail to serve one third, submitting a significant feature of the case included there was not an added level of violence and there was no evidence of any psychological or physical injury.
“The gravity of your offending is obvious,” Judge Trevino said.
“It is difficult to imagine a more serious example of the breach of trust a father owes to his children.
“You cynically abused your position to sexually exploit and abuse your own children by subjecting them to acts of rape and indecent treatment.
“And you did so for the purpose of making and distributing child exploitation material to other people unknown to you.
“The vulnerability and obvious inability of your children to disclose your abuse of them because they were so young.”
Judge Trevino accepted the physical offending was limited to a single occasion and did not involve gratuitous violence or physical injury to either child
And further accepted the man had sought and paid for his own ongoing psychological help and was deemed a low to moderate risk if counselling continued.
“Your actions have irrevocably and forever broken your family unit,” Judge Trevino said.
“The hurt your wife feels may never heal and her justified anger about what you have done may never dissipate.”
Ultimately Judge Trevino jailed the man for nine years but determined he should spend more time than the usual one third in custody.
The man must serve four years before he is eligible for parole.
