Bathurst man Mark Fitzgerald sentenced for historical sex crime, aggravated sex assault
A Bathurst weed dealer told a 14-year-old girl he had taken her to a place so quiet “you could kill someone” before raping her, a court has heard.
The Wagga News
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A Bathurst man who sold weed around town told a 14-year-old girl he was taking her “somewhere nice” before he showed her his penis and forced himself on her, a court has heard.
Mark Fitzgerald, 47, was sentenced for two counts of historical aggravated indecent assault where the victim was under the age of 16 years and two counts of aggravated sex assault where the victim was under the age of 16 years at Downing Centre district court on Tuesday.
He was found guilty by a jury at an earlier date.
The court heard Fitzgerald – who was the weed “dealer” to people known to the victim – had warned the young girl was in “big trouble” if she did not get into his ute and drive into the countryside.
On one occasion he drove her down a dirt road and stopped next to a river. He told her, “you could bury a body out here and no one would find it”, leaving the girl “terrified”.
When the victim was 14 Fitzgerald pulled up next to her in his ute while she was in her school uniform and asked if she “wanted a sesh”.
The girl got into the truck and he began to drive, telling her he was taking her “somewhere nice”.
Fitzgerald chatted to the girl, asking her “if she likes horses, and how old she was”.
The girl began to feel nervous, the court heard, and started to ask him: “are we there yet?”
Fitzgerald pulled to the side of the road where they both smoked some marijuana, before lifting up the seat to reveal a gun.
The court then heard he “flopped out his penis” and made her rub it up and down for about 30 seconds, before pushing himself inside her and pleasuring himself for about a minute and a half.
The girl believed she “would be seriously harmed or killed” if she did not participate, the court heard.
On another occasion Fitzgerald pulled over next to a dirt road near a river where he “yanked off the defendant’s pants” before forcing himself on her.
The girl told several people about what had happened at the time and in later years, before she reported the crimes to police in 2019.
Judge Graham Turnbull said the young woman was “palpably affected” as she recorded the events to the police and cried when she recounted how Fitzgerald told her “it was quiet and a place where you could kill someone”.
Judge Graham Turnbull said there was “no question” of a sentence other than full-time custody, stating the man showed “no contrition”.
“There is no remorse. There is no regret for his offending behaviour,” he said.
Judge Graham Turnbull sentenced Fitzgerald to an 11 year term of imprisonment with a non-parole period of 7 years, 4 months.
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