Mackay stepdad pleading guilty to indecent treatment against young girl

A young woman has vowed she will not let her abuser ‘haunt me for the rest of my life’ as she revealed the destructive impact his crime had on her life in a confronting victim impact statement.

A young woman, who secretly recorded her abusive former stepfather admit his vile conduct on a phone call, has revealed the depth of her emotional distress following his assault in a confronting victim impact statement.

“I will not let what he did to me haunt me for the rest of my life,” she shared.

“Nobody believed me and believed what I had gone through. Even my own mother didn’t believe me.”

The 47-year-old Mackay man pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting his ex-wife’s daughter when she was just 12 years old.

Mackay District Court heard how the little girl’s mother had previously forced her to retract her allegations of abuse, but believed her daughter when faced with the tape that included an apology for the crime.

Crown prosecutor Caitlin Penfold said the offending occurred in mid 2013 at their Mackay region home where he “took off his clothes” and joined her as she was showering.

The court heard the child got out and left the room but he called her back asking for a towel.

“She entered the room and saw the defendant standing naked,” Ms Penfold said.

A Mackay man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to indecent treatment charges against his stepdaughter.

The court heard he then touched her genitals over her clothes as she practised the splits in her sister’s room the following day.

Ms Penfold read out the woman’s victim impact statement, which outlined the emotional and physical distress that followed in the years after the assault.

She said her schooling had suffered and she “found it difficult to concentrate in class because I was worried about having to go home”.

The court heard she had disclosed the assaults in 2014 when a school counsellor noticed she had begun to self-harm.

“I couldn’t talk to anyone at home and acting out was my way of unloading the emotional burden of what was happening to me,” she wrote.

She said her mother had “labelled me a troublemaker and threatened that I would be put into foster care and never see my siblings again.”

The court heard in 2015 her mother told the counsellor and police her daughter had made up the allegations.

“(She) was subsequently taken to the police station and withdrew her complaint under the direction of her mother,” Ms Penfold said.

The court heard the victim and her stepsister were then left in the defendant’s care when their mother moved in with a new partner.

Defence barrister Scott McLennan told the court the child “was in the sole custody of my client between 2015 and 2017”.

The court heard she felt her mother had “abandoned” her and her mental health deteriorated.

But by 2021, she had the strength and support to face her abuser.

“I have people in my life who love me and support me and, above all, they believe me,” she said in her statement.

The court heard she called her former stepfather while her boyfriend secretly recorded the conversation.

“During that call, (he) maintained they had no recollection, but apologised to her for touching her and messing up her life,” Ms Penfold said.

“(He) said she was the only person that he had done this to, and that he would never do it again.”

The court heard she told her mother about the recording – her mother called her former husband, who said, “I did it, it’s all true.

“Everything she’s ever said, I did it.”

Mr McLennan said his client had “apologised profusely during that phone call” and handed himself in to police immediately after the confession to his ex-wife.

Judge Tony Moynihan said the assault was a “gross breach of trust” and acknowledged the victim’s “brave appearance” in court, with her mother and boyfriend.

“You have, as a consequence of your conduct, destroyed important relationships to you and have been denied access to your biological daughter,” he said.

Judge Moynihan said he took the man’s remorse and confession into account and jailed him for 15 months imprisonment, suspended for two years after serving three months.