Cedar Vale man guilty of molesting 12-year-old girl while her parents were home

The Gold Coast man has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl while her parents were home.

• Dad guilty of assaulting daughter’s friend
• Man accused of indecent assault of two teens

A BRAVE girl has ensured her perpetrator was brought to justice by speaking up about a betrayal that ended in molestation.

The 12-year-old girl was lured out of her bedroom by a family friend in the middle of the night on July 1, 2018 and was sexually assaulted on the family’s couch.

The man responsible for violating the girl was described in Southport District Court on Friday as having low intellect and poor emotional intelligence caused by a head injury as a baby.

He pleaded guilty to three charges of indecent treatment of a child under 16 and was sentenced to 12 months in jail, wholly suspended for 12 months, and ordered to serve two years of probation.

Crown prosecutor Gary Churchill told the court the 37-year-old Cedar Vale man was invited by the girl’s parents to sleep at their house after he had become too drunk to drive home.

Mr Churchill said the man was a friend of the girl’s dad and they had been working on a car together earlier that day.

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He said the man became too drunk to drive home and the girl’s parents told him to sleep on the couch in the lounge room.

“Her father put the family dog in her bedroom and turned the light off and closed the door,” Mr Churchill said.

“The defendant then entered the complainant’s bedroom and told her to come out.

“He pulled her onto the couch and put a blanket over them. He asked her if her bedroom door was closed and told her to go and close it.

“He then started undoing the zip on her skirt and asked if he could touch her, she responded: “No”.

“He then apologised and put his hand underneath her top and touched her breasts. He asked her if that was good, and she said: “No” and to stop. He again apologised and then touched her breast on the outside of her top.”

Mr Churchill said the offending was stopped by the girl’s dad after he went to the bathroom and noticed she wasn’t in bed.

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He said about five minutes later, the girl told her mum the man touched her on the chest, however, the man said he “bumped her on the boob”.

The girl told her dad what the man did to her the following morning and he took his daughter to the police station to make a report, he said.

Defence Barrister Bernard Riley said a psychiatric report on the man revealed he had mild intellectual disability after being assaulted by his father as a baby.

Mr Riley said the report stated the man did not have underlying devious behaviour and the offending was “more likely” a lack of restraint because he was drunk.

However, Judge Katherine McGinness told the man that alcohol would never be an excuse for criminal behaviour.

“I do accept the prosecution’s submission that in one way this was a breach of trust.

“You had been accepted into your friend’s home where he had young children and he did that because he trusted you.”

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