John Roger Fahey jailed for sexual assault and grooming against two young girls

A Mackay region man who sexually abused two young girls offered them $800 each for counselling after his vile crimes. Now he has fought to have his penalty reduced.

A Ball Bay man who sexually abused two young girls offered them $800 each for counselling after his vile crimes.

The 56 year old has now had his penalty reduced after successfully arguing his case, a Queensland Court of Appeal judgment revealed.

The offending occurred across 2017 and 2018 within the Mackay region when he was aged between 51 and 53 years old.

Over four months, John Roger Fahey groomed a young girl aged 11 to 12 over social media

The court heard he sent her emojis calling her “sexy, hot, beautiful and pretty” and told her “he wished she was his girlfriend”.

His messages were overtly flirtatious, involved love emojis, sexual comments, provocative invitations “and repeated expressions of interest in acts of sexual penetration”, and were “plainly manipulative in character”.

The offending stopped when the child’s father took screenshots of a message exchange to police.

The other abuse involved the sexual assault of a girl in her mid-teens but did not involve skin on skin contact.

On October 11, 2021 Fahey pleaded guilty to sexual assault and grooming a child under 16 years with intent to expose child to an indecent matter – he was ordered to spent three months of an 18-month jail term behind bars.

The term was partially suspended with the remaining jail time hanging over his head for two years.

The court heard at his sentence he offered both girls a letter of apology and an $800 cheque for counselling – neither girl accepted the money.

The younger girl “felt the untimely loss of her childhood”, while the family unit of the older victim “had been rocked by vicarious trauma and misplaced guilt”.

Lawyers for Fahey argued the penalty did not take into account his rehabilitation or low risk of reoffending, that there were “exceptional circumstances” and was manifestly excessive in all circumstances.

Psychological reports determined Fahey’s risk of reoffending was “quite low” but he “might require ongoing intervention and benefit from attending a sexual offender program”.

Appeals Court Judge Justice Hugh Fraser found the sentencing judge’s comments about Fahey’s pleas of guilty did not take into account that it was accepted he was remorseful for his offending.

“In my respectful opinion (Fahey) should have been given credit for the remorse that was demonstrated by his pleas of guilty,” Justice Fraser said.

“It is to the applicant’s credit that he took significant steps towards rehabilitation after pleading guilty, but it also must be borne in mind that he did not embark upon rehabilitation relating specifically to sexual offending until a long time after he was charged.”

Fahey will still have to spend three months behind bars, but his overall sentence was reduced to 12 months. The operational period of the suspended sentence was also reduced from two years to 12 months.

Originally published as John Roger Fahey jailed for sexual assault and grooming against two young girls