‘Hell on earth’: Top End ‘monster’ abused, isolated and manipulated daughter for years

*WARNING: DISTRESSING* A Territory teenager has called on the courts to condemn her father — the “monster” — who exposed her to “hell on earth” over four years.

A 40-year-old man will spend more than two decades behind bars after pleading guilty to the prolonged, degrading and sadistic sexual abuse of his daughter. Illustration: Steve Grice

A Territory teenager has called on the courts to condemn the “monster” who dragged her to “hell on earth”, after her own father pleaded guilty to a “relentless regimen of deviant sexual violence”.

The man in his 40s, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted to the “degrading and sadistic” sexual abuse of his biological daughter every few days for four years.

At the Supreme Court on Wednesday the Top End father was sentenced to 21 years in prison for his crimes, with a non-parole period of 18 years.

Speaking directly to the judge through a victim impact statement, his daughter said her father was a “serious danger to society and to underage boys and girls”.

“I would like the judge to take into account the lifelong debilitating and detrimental impacts of trauma experienced at the hands of this monster,” she wrote.

The court heard that her father put on the facade of being a “protector” when he took her in after she started suffering from depression while living with her mother interstate.

But the care he offered was a “trap”, leaving his daughter at the mercy of his violent, degrading and sadistic abuse.

The Top End father was sentenced to 21 years in prison the horrific sexual abuse of his daughter. Picture: istock

She described being isolated, manipulated and controlled by her father, who separated her from family, sabotaged her friendships and moved her to three different remote locations across the Territory.

“I felt completely trapped in a hopeless and helpless situation that I felt there was no way out,” she said.

The young woman told the court that she was malnourished, left with bruises to her body and face and had self-harmed numerous occasions, resulting in multiple hospitalisations.

“I would suffer in silence and shut down,” she said.

“I became so numb to the pain and did not bother to examine myself or seek medical advice as this became such a normal occurrence.”

And when she tried to stand up for herself, her father would manipulate and emotionally blackmail her by threatening to kill himself in front of her.

The young woman said she was “totally reliant” on her abuser for basic living needs, denying her access to a phone or her bank cards, alienating her from friends and “closely monitoring” her calls to her mother and siblings.

Her mother — who only realised her daughter was in danger during a monosyllabic yet distressed call — said the child who returned to her home was not the “confident, outgoing and normal carefree teenager” she sent to the Territory four years ago.

“(She had a) dishevelled appearance and … looking severely neglected and malnourished”.

“(She was) fragile, withdrawn, lacking confidence and self esteem.”

Her daughter has since been diagnosed with complex post traumatic stress disorder, induced schizophrenia and an eating disorder, with the young woman suffering from night terrors and unable to look at herself in the mirror.

“This impacts on every aspect for the rest of my life,” she said.