Palmerston father ‘motivated by cruelty’ sentenced for neglecting, abusing kids

A Palmerston father’s sadistic double life has been exposed, allowing his four young children to finally escape their home of squalor and abuse. WARNING: Distressing.

Four Palmerston kids were abandoned to a home of squalor and abuse, forced to live in a house reeking of faeces, covered in rubbish and exposed to their father’s violent sadism.

A Palmerston man was sentenced to six years in prison for neglecting his children, physically abusing his daughters, and offering cash and drugs to children on Instagram to fulfil a sick “fantasy to play with a young virgin girl”.

NT Supreme Court Justice John Burns said the Palmerston father — who cannot be named to protect the identities of his victims — was “motivated by cruelty” in his treatment of his young children.

“You betrayed your children’s trust and the trust of the community in a most despicable and egregious fashion,” he said on Wednesday.

Justice Burns said the children were known to child protection authorities, and were taken into the care of Territory Families in 2018.

Within a year their father was granted parental custody of his children by the Family Court.

A Palmerston man was sentenced to six years in prison for neglecting his children and physically abusing his daughters.

Yet Justice Burns said for the next four years the children were exposed to assaults, abuse, neglect and psychological harm, were not provided sufficient food or clean clothing in a home that had turned to “unsanitary and dangerous squalor”.

He said the toilets and bathroom was “soiled with faeces and urine”, the walls were “filthy”, there were syringes in the home and the bedrooms were blocked due to the scale of rubbish on the floor.

By the time they finally were removed from his care in February 2023, the children were covered in nits, in stained, old and dirty clothes, and with rotted teeth and ear infections.

Justice Burns said the children told police and child protection were regularly left without dinner, sometimes going up to two days without food.

He said the Palmerston dad’s ‘sadism’ and violence was exclusively directed towards his young daughters under the “pretext of parental discipline”.

“Your actions went well beyond what any decent human would have considered to be parental discipline and again smack of cruelty,” Justice Burs said.

The Supreme Court heard a common punishment inflicted on his girls was to force them to “put their heads against the wall with their hands behind their back for long periods of time”.

Justice Burns said if the young girls moved, their father would throw toys at them leaving them with welts and in pain

Justice Burns said if they moved, their father would throw toys at them leaving them with welts and in pain.

“The girls were directed to clean the house, with various objects being thrown at them while they did,” he said.

The court heard a multiple occasions where the girls were called “greedy” “stupid b***h”, “mongrel c**ts” and then smacked, stepped on, kicked or hit with rubber thongs, toys or a wooden broomstick, before forced into the stress position against the wall.

His youngest daughter said in one outburst she was hit with a butter knife to the chest, and despite crying and bleeding her father did not take her to the hospital — or even let her sleep with a blanket because she was “naughty”.

“She says that she is scared of you and scared that you will find her and abuse her where she is now staying,” Justice Burns said.

And yet, the court heard it was their father who would threaten to “call Territory Families to take them away”.

In the Northern Territory it is mandatory for anyone who has concerns about a child potentially being harmed or abused to make a report.

In the Northern Territory it is mandatory for anyone who has concerns about a child potentially being harmed or abused to make a report.

The Supreme Court heard that the children failed to attend medical checks, went hungry while at school, and other parents had noticed that the children had nits and were wearing dishevelled clothes and shoes.

Justice Burns also said the children were exposed to sexual behaviour, flagging that all four children were forced to sleep in the same bedroom.

“You would have sex workers and other women and girls visit the residence, when engaging with such people you would require the children to go into different rooms,” he said

“You had a large suitcase with sex toys that the children found.”

But it was his vile messages to a child’s Instagram account in February 2023 that tipped authorities off to his sadistic behaviour.

The man sent a child’s Instagram account “highly sexualised” messages asking if she was a “a virgin, single and whether she liked or had ever played with c**k” and offering her drugs and cash if she came over.

He also sent a photo of himself on the toilet with an erect penis.

“(You) suggested that she should move in with you and your own four children and told her it was your fantasy to play with a young virgin girl,” Justice Burns said.

The 13-year-old later told police she noticed “you were following lots of little girls on Instagram and that she knew a lot of these girls as friends or mutual friends”.

The 13-year-old later told police she noticed “you were following lots of little girls on Instagram and that she knew a lot of these girls as friends or mutual friends”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nicholas Eagar

It was this investigation by the Northern Territory Police Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team that led to the raid on the house of squalor in early 2023.

Justice Burns said the cruelty exposed to his four children could be a reflection of his own childhood trauma.

“You recall beatings and violent discipline against the children … including instances of your being tied to a bed for long periods of time and being disciplined by being chained to a tap,” he said.

“You reiterated that you have been subject to physical and emotional abuse but denied any ongoing trauma as a result of that experience.”

After spending 27 months on remand, he pleaded guilty to of failure to provide necessaries of life, assault, and sending indecent messages to a child

He was sentenced to a total of six years and two month in prison, with a non parole period until July 2026.

Originally published as Palmerston father ‘motivated by cruelty’ sentenced for neglecting, abusing kids