73-year-old man charged after ‘special massage’ assault on two teenage girls

A 73-year-old man who asked for help with his bad back before locking two girls in a room, assaulting them, and masturbating in front of them has faced Darwin Supreme Court.

A 73-year-old Darwin man has pleaded guilty to two counts of gross indecency with a child. Picture: Jason Walls

A 73-year-old who lured two girls to his bedroom under the pretence of “helping an old man” before locking the door, masturbating, and sexually assaulting them has faced Darwin court.

The Darwin man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded guilty to two counts of committing an act of gross indecency with a child, after his assault on a 14-year-old girl on June 16 and a 15-year-old girl on June 17 last year.

At Darwin Supreme Court on Thursday Crown prosecutor Tamara Grealy said the man had been “grooming” the girls for some months prior to the attack, paying them to do chores at his home, taking them to get food, and buying the 15-year-old a mobile phone which he used to contact her.

In two separate incidents, he asked the girls to help with a massage claiming he was “an old man with a sore back” who needed assistance.

“When they get in the room he locks the door and advises them that it will be a ‘special massage’,” Ms Grealy said.

In the incident with the 14-year-old, the man told the girl he wanted a massage “down there”.

When she said she did not want to touch his penis and asked to leave, the man told her “no girl, it’s already started”, removed her bra, grabbed her breasts, rubbed over her underwear, masturbated himself, and put her hand on his penis.

The following day the man took the 15-year-old into his bedroom, removed her shorts, rubbed her vagina, masturbated and ejaculated on the bed next to her, telling her “it’s hard for an old man like me to get erect, so this helps me”.

In a recorded conversation days after the offence, the man told the 15-year-old “I’m not going to say I’m sorry because I had no idea what I was allowed to do”, and “as far as I’m concerned you’re much more mature than a minor, you’re almost 16”.

Victim impact statements from the girls were read in court as the man sat in the dock, head bowed.

The 15-year-old’s statement said “he made me feel really disgusted with my body”.

“I would go in the shower and scrape my skin because I wanted to get it off me … I’ve had thoughts of harming myself because of this, I don’t like to be alone with men,” the statement read.

The 15-year-old described moving out of home after the incident because her mother began calling her “a prostitute” and accusing her of “wanting” the assault.

A statement from the 14-year-old, read by one of her family members, told of the girl losing weight and beginning to take antidepressants in the wake of the incident.

“What’s happened to me is always going to be with me. I felt like he took something from me that I can never get back,” she said.

“I felt like it was my fault, that I did something to deserve it, like I shouldn’t have been there. I had trust for that person, I did not think that person would do something like that to me.”

Justice John Burns said it was “somewhat odd” to have a 73-year-old with limited criminal history face such charges, and questioned whether there might be “any form of early dementia involved in his behaviour”.

“The reason for that is not because it excuses his behaviour, the reason is so that when he is released, those who will be responsible for monitoring his behaviour know what they are dealing with,” he said.

Justice Burns ordered a cognitive assessment be carried out and the case was adjourned to July 17 for sentencing, where the man could face up to 20 years in prison.