Man sentenced for sexually touching child in Brewarrina

The devastated mum of a six-year-old boy who was sexually touched by an older man under a trampoline says her family was left homeless and struggled to get counselling in the state’s north west afterwards.

The mother of a six-year-old boy who was sexually touched by a 27-year-old man has told a court how she struggled to access counselling for him afterwards and lives in fear he will become caught up in a cycle of sexual offending as he gets older.

According to court documents, the boy was touched underneath a trampoline he was given as a Christmas present, sometime between December 2020 and February 6 this year in Brewarrina in north-west NSW.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, went into a yard the boy was playing in, pulled down his pants and pressed his naked buttocks directly onto the boy’s face for a short period of time.

On February 6 the child told his mother what happened and he repeated the same story to police three days later when a formal interview took place.

The iconic Barwon River at Brewarrina. Picture: Toby Zerna

The man was arrested and has been remanded in custody ever since.

The boy’s mother read out a victim impact statement in Dubbo Local Court before the man was sentenced after pleading guilty to a charge of intentionally sexually touching a child.

“This sexual crime was committed against my boy when he was only six years of age, whilst playing in his own backyard, a place where he was entitled to feel safe,” she said.

“He was an innocent child and afterwards he started to act out in sexual ways.

“For a long time I couldn’t get counselling because of Covid. Now we do Facetime with a sexual assault counsellor which is okay, but would be way better face to face.”

The woman said the crime led her to flee the community she called home.

“I had to resign ... we were homeless for months ... we didn’t know what our next move was,” she told the court.

When the boy moved into a new community, the woman said she informed his new school about the crime he was a victim of.

The man was sentenced in the Dubbo Local Court. Picture: Ryan Young

“They said that they would have to take precautions for other students in case (he) acted out in a sexual manner,” she said.

“He asked me why he wasn’t allowed to go to the toilets during class hours because the kids can usually go with another buddy. I just had to be honest with him and I told him why, and reassured him that he was not a bad kid, that it was just that he was exposed to something by an adult that did the wrong thing.”

“I sit and wonder how I am going to unteach my son what he’s been taught. With help and support I’ll try my hardest to break this cycle.”

Defence lawyer Jessica Meech said while “the offending was no doubt distressing for the victim” it was of “low objective seriousness”.

Ms Meech asked the court to find that the threshold for imposing a sentence of imprisonment had not been crossed.

She said the man, who had an extensive drug problem, entered a guilty plea early and lived with a suspected cognitive impairment.

Crown prosecutor Jonathan May said he took objection to a submission made by Ms Meech which suggested the crime took place while the man was clothed.

“He had clothes on but at the time of the incident he took his pants off and pressed his naked buttocks into the boy’s face,” Mr May said.

“He was on conditional liberty at the time he committed this offence.

“The victim was vulnerable as he was very young.”

While “the event was relatively brief”, Magistrate Stephen Olischlager said the harm done to the boy would be “ongoing”.

The man who committed the offence suffered disadvantage as a child which had not diminished over time, Magistrate Olischlager told the court.

“I do note he has a record of commission of other offences, although not of a sexual nature,” Magistrate Olischlager said.

The man was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison, backdated to February 9 this year when he first entered custody.

He will be eligible for parole in February 2022 after serving 12 months of his sentence.