‘Abhorrent’: Girl wakes to mother’s partner touching her as she slept

Judge: “It is something the community rightly abhors even, notwithstanding, that the community has not to date been able to rid itself of such cruel behaviour”.

A man has faced Bundaberg District Court charged with the indecent treatment of a child under 12.

A court has heard how an 11-year-old girl woke to her mother’s partner touching her bottom as she slept.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sentenced in the Bundaberg District Court after previously pleading guilty to one count of indecent treatment of a child under 12 under care.

At the time of the incident the man was in an on-and-off relationship with the girl’s mother.

The court heard the girl had been asleep and woke up to the man touching her bottom underneath her clothing.

When confronted by the girl’s mother the man initially denied the claims and further denied them in a statement to police.

Crown prosecutor Erin Kelly told the court the man had some entries on his criminal history, but none of a like nature.

She said the man had previously spent 137 days in pre-sentence custody.

The man’s barrister Callan Cassidy told the court his client had been exposed to domestic violence as a child and, being the eldest in his family, helped his mother bring up his siblings.

Mr Cassidy told the court the man had been consistently employed and that the offending was “out of character”.

Mr Cassidy said while the offending was serious, it was at the lower end of the scale of seriousness.

Judge Michael Rackemann said offending in an “indecent” and “sexual” way against children was “abhorrent”.

“It is something the community rightly abhors even, notwithstanding, that the community has not, to date, been able to rid itself of such cruel behaviour” he said.

Judge Rackemann said the man’s offending fell at the “lower end” of conduct of that nature, but said it should not be taken to “trivialise” what he did.

“The reality of offending of this kind, particularly against young children, is that it can have significant effects not only upon the child but upon the family around the child and the relationships that are involved,” he said.

Judge Rackemann took into account the man’s plea of guilty and history, as well as references tendered to the court.

The man was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment which was suspended after the time already served for a period of 18 months.

The 137 days of presentence custody was declared as time already served.

Originally published as ‘Abhorrent’: Girl wakes to mother’s partner touching her as she slept