Former concreter pleads guilty to incest after sexually abusing granddaughter
A 60-year-old former concreter was hooked on meth when he sexually abused his granddaughter at least twice over a five-year period.
Mildura
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A former concreter from northern Victoria sexually abused his granddaughter at least twice between 2018 and 2023.
The 60-year-old man pleaded guilty to two counts of incest with a direct linear descendant on Thursday.
The charges related to two separate occasions.
The victim indicated to police the abuse had happened several more times between the first and last instances.
When Judge Simon Moglia read out the charges for the accused to plead to, the man simply said, “guilty, sir.”
The court heard at a date between August 31, 2018 to August 31, 2019, the grandfather was travelling regionally with his granddaughter in a truck.
During the journey, the pair stopped at a truck stop and he told his granddaughter to take her pants off and get in the back of the truck.
Once she was in the back of the truck, the grandfather penetrated the young girl’s vagina with his penis until she told him it hurt. He then stopped.
The court heard that the victim was told by the accused not to tell anyone about what had happened.
On another occasion, the man sexually assaulted the victim while the pair were in the back shed of a property the family all lived in.
Heartbreaking Victim Impact Statements (VIS) were read into the record, one from the victim and one from her mother.
The victim’s mother told the court via her VIS her father’s actions against her daughter had devastated her.
“His crimes have devastated every aspect of my heart, mind and soul,” the mother’s VIS read.
She also mentioned how the family had been sleeping rough following the arrest of her father.
The victim’s VIS painted a bleak reality for the girl, both during the offending and in the time following her grandfather’s arrest.
“I just want to stay in bed all day because I am sad. I sometimes hate myself and think it would be better if I wasn’t here,” the VIS read.
“I wish I was a normal kid who just had a normal, happy family.”
She also stated that once kids at her school found out about what happened to her, she was subjected to bullying.
The accused’s lawyer, Glenn Cooper, said his client was in the grips of a meth addiction, consuming at least a point a day of the drug, at the time the offending occurred.
Mr Cooper also emphasised that his client had entered a very early plea and had shown genuine remorse for his actions. He mentioned that his client had tried to take his own life while in custody.
“The things I did make me feel sick,” the court heard the man told medical staff following his suicide attempt.
It was also revealed that the grandfather had a pedophilic disorder along with a major depressive disorder, both of which were diagnosed after his incarceration.
Despite all of this, Judge Simon Moglia said it should have never have happened.
“None of what I (just) described should have occurred,” Judge Moglia said in sentencing.
“Your addiction, which you have spoken about candidly, does not make what you did less serious.”
Judge Moglia handed down a sentence of seven years and three months, with a non parole period of four years and five months.
“Had you not pleaded guilty it would have been a ten year sentence with a non parole period of seven years,” Judge Moglia said.
The grandfather will also be required to be on the sex offenders registry for life.
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