Rockhampton girl molested and raped by uncle, who shared child porn with perpetrators in Russia

*WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT* A Rockhampton man who abused his young niece for two years showed no remorse, shame or guilt about his crimes. Now he’s facing decades in prison. Read what happened in court here.

A Rockhampton man who repeatedly raped his niece for two years, starting when she was five years old, has shown no signs of remorse, shame or guilt over offending since his arrest.

The 37-year-old was handed a 20 year prison term on Thursday by Judge Jeff Clarke, who described the man’s offending as a vile defilement of his niece, with the “sheer volume and persistence” of his offending showing “an entrenched interest in perversion”.

“I was struck how brazenly you must have carried out this abuse and kept it hidden,” he said.

The man’s sickening sexual abuse of his own young niece was discovered by a worker preparing his pawned laptop for sale.

The uncle exchanged child exploitation material, including videos of sadistic harm or bestiality, along with his own recordings of his niece with at least five perpetrators he was talking to online in a chat room which had 11 members, including one from Russia.

There were 54 videos he filmed of his victim on the laptop along with 1672 video files and 8005 still images of child exploitation material.

He raped and molested his niece over a two-year period while she was in his care. To protect the identity of the victim, by law he cannot be named.

The uncle has been remanded in custody for three years awaiting sentence on close to 100 child sexual abuse charges.

He pleaded guilty in Rockhampton District Court last week to one count of maintaining a sexual relationship with a child, 62 counts of rape, 23 of indecent treatment of a child, five possessing child exploitation material and one of distributing child exploitation material.

Judge Clarke said the man’s offending was “prolific, continued, persevering, catalogued, shared, discussed and recommended (in online chats with other predators)”.

He said it would be naive to think the video recordings found showed the only abuse the defendant carried out on the innocent, defenceless child.

The sexual abuse was so disturbing, the female police officer sitting in the dock with the defendant during the first session of his sentencing proceedings had a look of horror and astonishment after hearing the facts of his crimes.

Crown prosecutor Samantha O’Rourke said the abuse was prolonged and prolific.

“In some of the videos, the child is audibly in pain,” she said.

“Despite hearing her, he continued penetration.

“It is clear in the videos the child knew the defendant was exploiting her … when she begged him not to post it online.”

Ms O’Rourke said the child was saved by a pawn broker’s employee.

She said the defendant had given his laptop to the business for a loan and when he failed to pay back the loan, a staff member uncovered the child exploitation material when they went to delete the contents of the laptop in preparation for sale.

Police uncovered 54 videos totalling four hours of footage of the defendant’s sexual abuse on the child.

Ms O’Rourke said the files were named in a way that identified the content.

She said the videos showed evidence the niece, who did not disclose any of the offending when she spoke to police, had ‘normalised’ the conduct.

Ms O’Rourke said the contents of chatroom conversations uncovered by police revealed the other perpetrators asked the defendant for more material of him abusing his niece and the defendant “romanticising” the contents of the videos.

She said they all claimed their child victims enjoyed their sexual abuse and the defendant’s motivation for recording the abuse was to share the videos with the others.

Ms O’Rourke said that was indicated by the fact he taught the victim to say the names of the child victims of the other perpetrators in the chat room, including one based in Russia.

Despite evidence of the offending being located on three devices – the laptop, an external hard drive and another computer – the defendant denied his offending when police spoke to him.

“There is evidence the defendant has a complete lack of insight into his offending,” Ms O’Rourke said.

Defence lawyer Maree Willey said her client had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression and bipolar disorder.

Judge Clarke said the defendant told police “demonstrable lies” to hide his “simply despicable conduct”.

“I was not told of any interest in being assessed for the problems in the way your mind operates which causes you to act in this way,” he said.

“Your thought processes are so wrong you justified and rationalised your actions by saying she was enjoying the abuse.

“You have not shown one iota of shame or embarrassment. No remorse or acceptance of wrong doing. No expression of insight into the trauma you have caused.”

Judge Clarke said despite there being no formal psychological assessment of the defendant, he deemed it “safe to assume (he) would meet the criteria for a diagnosis” of paedophilic disorder.

The defendant will have to serve 80 per cent of the 20-year prison term handed down by Judge Clarke, minus the 1052 days presentence custody which was declared as time served.