Former cop Mario Didulica groomed 14yo girl, told her she would be his ‘perfect wife’

A former Victorian police officer groomed a teenager and pleaded with her to runaway with him to France where she could be his “perfect wife”.

Former Victorian cop groomed 14-year-old girl and begged her to runaway with him. Picture: Paul Jeffers

A former Victorian cop begged a 14-year-old girl to run away to France with him so she could be his “perfect wife”.

Mario Didulica, 50, began grooming the teenage girl for sex when she was in Year 9, pleading with the teen to fill out a passport application so they could elope to France where they could be together.

Didulica, who was found guilty of two counts of sexual penetration of a child under 16 following a trial, appeared in the County Court on Tuesday where he doodled on a sheet of paper as he dialled in from the Hopkins Correctional Centre.

The Geelong dad, who was 38 at the time, met the schoolgirl at her home to engage in sexual activity while her parents were at work between 2009 and 2010.

Prosecutors alleged the pair shared more than 30,000 messages, including nude or sexually explicit photos.

Ex-cop Mario Didulica was found guilty of two counts of sexual penetration of a child under 16 following a trial earlier this year.

In one sickening message sent to his victim’s school email in May 2010, Didulica told the girl he loved her and expressed his desire to have “the perfect life with my perfect wife (you)”.

The former Werribee cop allegedly bragged about his teen girlfriend to his colleagues, showing a senior sergeant a photo of the girl, who was 14 at the time, in her underwear and telling him they were waiting until she was 18 and “legal”.

Didulica resigned from the force after his house was raided by police in 2010 but charges were not laid for another three years after he had moved to Croatia.

An Interpol warrant was issued and Didulica was arrested and imprisoned in Bosnia after he tried to cross the border to attend a family funeral in 2018 – five years after he had left Australia.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, the woman, now 26, told the court Didulica’s abuse had “broken” her.

She detailed how she was shunned from her tight-knit community and labelled a “homewrecker” when details of their relationship became public.

“My innocence was taken from me,” she said.

“I have felt watched and talked about my whole adult life … the system has let me down over and over again.”

Didulica’s lawyer, Georgina Connelly, said other inmates were permitted to abuse her client while he was imprisoned in Bosnia, adding his experience was so horrific it deserved its own TV series.

The violence drove him to two suicide attempts during his 99 days behind bars, she said.

Ms Connelly argued her client’s sentence should be reduced due to his trauma and the 13-year delay between his offending and sentencing.

Didulica will be sentenced in the County Court on June 9.