Abused boy kept abuse secret for fear his parents wouldn’t love him

A little boy who was sexually abused for a year by a man he called his uncle kept the horrific offending a secret from his parents for fear they wouldn’t love him any more, a court has heard.

The case was heard in Brisbane District Court. Picture: Dan Peled/NCA NewsWire

A little boy who was sexually abused for a year by a man he called his uncle kept the horrific offending a secret from his parents for fear they wouldn’t love him anymore, a court has heard.

The man who preyed upon the Deception Bay boy had been taken in by the child’s family in February 2017 because he had nowhere else to go.

The Brisbane District Court heard that over the course of a year to February 2018, the offender, then aged 22 to 23, sexually abused the little boy early in the mornings while his parents slept.

The defendant, who cannot be identified to protect the identity of his victim, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child who was aged five and six at the time of the offending.

“You were treated as a family friend and they had trusted you,” Judge Leanne Clare SC said.

“It was a heavy trust.”

The man said he thought of the boy as a son and the child called him uncle, such was the closeness of their relationship.

“He was too afraid to speak up but his parents became suspicious and they warned you to stay away from him in the morning,” Judge Clare said.

“But shortly after that you resumed the behaviour until his father caught you in the act and you were evicted.”

The court heard the little boy did not tell his parents what had happened to him until years later.

“He carried the shame and the guilt of your crime on his own, he worried that they would stop loving him, he worried that he would not be able to have children,” Judge Clare said.

“He bore those things on his own for three years until finally it was burning him up so much that he confided in his parents. I cannot imagine how heartbreaking that must have been to hear.”

“The little boy’s mother says that you broke the soul of an innocent child.”

The court heard the child’s entire family had been “shattered” by the offending.

Judge Clare said evidence put before her revealed the man was still a “substantial risk of reoffending” and that he appeared be “romanticising the relationship” he had with the child.

She said the man’s offending was a “gross and persistent violation of a very vulnerable person”.

“It was a calculated intensive course of conduct with enduring traumatic consequences for your victim and his family,” she said.

The defendant was sentenced to five year’s imprisonment with parole eligibility in May 2024 after he has served 16 months in custody.