Qld man sentenced over child abuse filmed with victim's mother
A Queensland man faces just one year behind bars despite filming himself sexually abusing a child under his care and sharing the footage with the victim’s mother.
A Queensland man who sexually abused, raped and filmed a vulnerable young girl alongside the girl’s mother will be out in the community in one year.
The 26-year-old Queensland man, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of his victim, pleaded guilty before Toowoomba District Court in November to multiple child sexual offences including rape, indecent treatment and the production, distribution and possession of child exploitation material.
The court was told that over multiple years, the man molested the young Western Downs girl.
On one occasion, he orally raped her, exposing her to the risk of disease.
“He videoed that … then distributed those videos to the girl’s mother,” Crown prosecutor Hamish McIntyre said.
She was only 12.
Some time between this incident and her 15th birthday, the man got in a shower with the child, touching her naked body.
On a further occasion of abuse, he began touching her vagina before the young girl pushed him away. The girl’s mother then performed oral sex on the man in front of her child.
“The offending in my submission is a very serious and very corruptive course of offending against someone who was still a relatively young girl,” Mr McIntyre said.
“It is a gross abuse of trust that the defendant was party to.”
When police were made aware of the abuse, the man advised he had a naked photo of the young girl on his phone, claiming it was sent to him by the girl’s mother.
Barrister Malcolm Harrison said the man had a clean rap sheet prior to this offending and suggested the girl’s mother was a strong participant in the abuse, arguing his client had eagerly co-operated with police from the beginning.
“(His co-operation) might show, in a way, the context of his life and what it might have been without meeting his co-accused,” Mr Harrison said.
“That is not to say I am blaming her, my client was clearly criminally responsible with or without her.”
The court was told the Western Downs woman was facing related child abuse charges in the Dalby District Court.
The man was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and an additional two years of probation.
His imprisonment will be suspended for a period of five years after serving one year in actual custody.
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Originally published as Qld man sentenced over child abuse filmed with victim's mother
