Man jailed for 14 years for raping stepdaughter, taking photos and videos of children

A heartbroken father and stepmother have declared the Sunshine Coast is the “gravesite of our poor girl’s childhood” after it was discovered a “father figure” had been sexually abusing her from the age of 6.

A man has been jailed for sexually abusing his stepdaughter. Photo: iStock

A woman shook with tears, grief and anger as she spoke to a court about how a “pedophile” ruined the life her family built on the Sunshine Coast after years of sexually abusing her stepdaughter.

A Sunshine Coast man - who cannot be named for legal reasons - appeared in the District Court on February 26 for sentencing after he previously pleaded guilty to 26 charges including 12 counts of rape.

Crown prosecutor Rebecca Marks said the man had become the victim’s stepfather and began taking sexual interest in the girl since she was two-years-old, but began touching her from the age of 6 until she was 12.

Ms Marks said the girl had considered him as a father figure.

The court heard he often bribed her with money and lollies after he inappropriately touched her and forced her to touch his body.

Ms Marks told the court the man first raped his stepdaughter when she was 8, after he had covered himself in baby oil.

On another occasion, he gave her a stuffed toy and told her to “bite down on it” after he told her to put her school uniform on.

Ms Marks said he clearly has a fetish for school uniforms.

The man took the young girl to multiple different public bathrooms to inappropriately touch her and rape her, often taking photos and videos after, the court heard.

The girl had cried and asked him to stop and continued to abuse her despite her refusals to his inappropriate requests.

The graphic details shared in court of what the young girl endured are too horrific to describe.

The girl was between 6 and 12 years old when she was abused by her stepfather. Photo: generic

Ms Marks said the last incident of rape between the man and his stepdaughter occurred at his home.

Ms Marks told the court the man had taken videos of her bathing and showering in the bathroom until another person in the home noticed him and screamed.

The man had deleted the video in an attempt to hide his wrongdoing but the matter was reported to police, the court heard.

Police had searched the man’s room to find magazines, sex toys, his stepdaughter’s uniform and the underwear of the younger girl he had filmed in the bathroom.

More than 2108 photos and 1505 videos of child exploitation material were exposed on his phone, laptop and a hard drive, including 21 of his stepdaughter, eight of the older girl and two of an unidentified girl, the court heard.

Many showed his stepdaughter in public bathrooms as she tried to cover her face and layed on dirty floors, one crawling with ants and littered with an used bandaid.

Ms Marks said he “smirked and chuckled” during a police interview and said he had bought some of the material using Bitcoin.

The girl’s biological father then read out his statement, describing how a phone call from police became “every parent’s worst nightmare”.

He said his daughter spent three days at the police station, giving evidence and “reliving the horrors” she endured “at the hands of this monster”.

The father described the man’s offending as “disgusting attacks on his daughter” and called him a “pedophile” as he stared into the face of the man sitting in the dock.

He choked back tears as he told the court the knowledge haunted him everyday and his daughter had become withdrawn ever since the man’s offending was exposed.

The young girl’s stepmother - her father’s wife - began reading her statement as she tried to hold back her tears before she sobbed into the microphone and her husband came to comfort her.

Maroochydore Courthouse. Picture: Patrick Woods.

She described the moment she had to ask the young girl the “hardest questions” of her life as she trembled in her arms.

“I was in a nightmare except I was wide awake,” she said.

She raised her voice as she named the man a pedophile and the “filth of humanity”.

The woman told the court their family now drive longer routes around the Sunshine Coast to avoid places like public bathrooms which may remind them of the incident.

“This place has become a gravesite of our poor girl’s childhood,” she said.

Defence barrister Simon Lewis said his client was obsessed with porn and had medicated for psychosis in the past after he experienced substance-induced psychotic episodes.

Mr Lewis said the man, who has been in custody for two years, now had a job as a metalworker in prison.

Judge Glen Cash said the man showed “extraordinary depravity” in his “almost constant abuse” against the girl and his offending has taken an “unfathomable toll on the victims and families”.

He sentenced the man to 14 years imprisonment but will be eligible for parole when he has served 80 per cent - or about 11 years - of the sentence.

His two years in pre-sentence custody was declared as time served.

The man pleaded guilty to 12 counts of rape, nine of recording in breach of privacy, one of possessing child exploitation material, one of maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child and three of indecent treatment of a child.