Grub Melbourne businessman dad Roger Dawidowicz pleads guilty to sexual assault of a child

A Melbourne businessman sexually assaulted a young girl under the guise of a “fun game” while the pair were in a car together.

Roger Dawidowicz pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a child under 16.

A grub businessman who concocted a fake game to sexually assault a young girl while he drove her home from a trip to Timezone has been jailed.

Roger Dawidowicz, 50, was sentenced in the County Court on Friday to a minimum 32-month jail term after pleading guilty to multiple sexual assault of a child charges.

Dawidowicz, of St Albans, violated his victim multiple times in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs almost five years ago.

Dawidowicz, who is not related to his victim, assaulted the young girl after driving her home from Knox Timezone.

Dawidowicz forced his victim to perform lewd acts on him every time they passed under a “blue light” while travelling along EastLink.

The blue lights were later revealed to be EastLink toll points.

The grub dad, who also performed lewd acts on the child, told his victim “it can be, like, a fun game or something”.

“You just have to squeeze a little bit like that every time you go under the light …,” Dawidowicz told his victim.

“See, isn’t that such a fun game.”

The victim, who called her assailant ‘Roger the Rat’, recalled she was scared and did what Dawidowicz wanted in fear he would hurt her.

Dawidowicz also exposed himself to the victim during an earlier lewd incident.

“I have a surprise for you,” Dawidowicz said.

“OK ready … close your eyes … here’s the surprise.”

He also asked his victim if she wanted to “touch it” then grabbed her hand and placed it upon himself.

After another lewd incident Dawidowicz told the victim she did a “good job”.

“That is so good,” he said.

Dawidowicz also sexually assaulted the child in Doveton after the pair attended an AFL game.

The matter was referred to police in April last year.

Dawidowicz, accompanied by a solicitor, gave a “no comment” interview when questioned by police in August last year.

The victim said, in her impact statement read to the court, Dawidowicz’s offending made her feel “helpless”.

“ (Dawidowicz) made me feel what happened was my fault …,” the victim said.

“I am extremely angry … at this rat … the abuse changed the way I saw the world …”

Dawidowicz runs his own fire protection business.

The court heard Dawidowicz ceased working as a fire protection designer for Integral Group in May this year.

Dawidowicz, who had 26 years experience as a fire protection engineer, now operates his own business which provides consulting and maintenance services to the fire protection industry.

Dawidowicz also lost his Working with Children Check which meant it was “untenable” for him to work on fire protection projects for kindergartens and schools, the court was told.

The defence also submitted evidence from a psychologist who said Dawidowicz was “on the border of suffering from mild spectrum”.

The defence also submitted the psychologist’s opinion from the most recent report which stated Dawidowicz, a dad, suffered from mild autism spectrum disorder.

“(The psychologist) says ‘in my opinion the fact he suffered from mild autism spectrum disorder at the time of the offending was relevant in that the autism spectrum disorder most probably played a contributory role in terms of clouding his judgment in relation to the boundary issues between himself and the victim of his offending’,” the defence submitted.

“That is the expert evidence before you.”

Judge Stewart Bayles said the submission needed to be “explored a bit further”.

“I find that (the psychologist’s comments) somewhat light on for an evidentiary basis for me to invoke … any limbs of Verdins,” Judge Bayles said.

Dawidowicz, who was made a registered sex offender for life, was jailed for a maximum four years and nine months.

[e-mail]