Maryborough man sentenced for sexually abusing three sisters

The tearful mother of three girls who were sexually abused and raped by her former partner has confronted him as he sat in the dock with his head bowed.

The mother of three little girls sexually abused and raped over the course of a decade by their stepfather has given a victim impact statement to the court.

The tearful mother of three girls who were sexually abused by her former partner has confronted him in court as he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The 46-year-old stepfather of the three girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, this week pleaded guilty to four counts of maintaining a relationship with a child and two counts of rape when he faced Maryborough District Court.

The sexual abuse happened on a regular basis while the man was alone with the three girls while their mother worked, Mr Cook said.

On multiple occasions, the young girls were abused in front of each other.

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On one occasion when one of the girls became upset, the man told her: “oh f--- off you sook. If you ever tell your mum, I’ll kill you”.

Mr Cook said the offending happened over the course of a decade, with a gap of about five years in the middle when the man and the girls’ mother broke up.

Maryborough Court House.Photo: Valerie Horton/ Fraser Coast Chronicle.

Speaking directly to the man as he hung his head in the dock, the woman told him she regretted letting him into their lives.

She said her heart had been “destroyed, crushed and broken”.

“How could you do this?” she said.

“Guilt and shame has weighed me down every single day, knowing what my babies endured since they were little girls at the hands of someone that we all trusted.

“There was nothing I could do to protect them.”

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The woman spoke of how the abuse had affected her relationship with her daughters.

She had been forced to move away from Maryborough and had been left in significant amounts of debt, the woman said.

“You were supposed to protect them. Instead, you have destroyed them,” she said.

“You took away all of their innocence.

“It is 13 years I will never be able to get back or be able to erase from my memory.”

The man was sentenced to 15 years in prison and was classified as a serious violent offender, meaning he would have to serve 80 per cent of his sentence before being eligible for parole.

The 103 days he had spent in pre-sentence custody was declared as time served.