Townsville father sentenced to life imprisonment for raping, sexually abusing and filming children

A Townsville man used mothers in order to sexually abuse and film children, with one distraught woman revealing to the court her failed fight to legally keep him away from her infant daughter. WARNING: Distressing content

Townsville father sentenced to life imprisonment for raping, sexually abusing and filming children Picture: innovatedcaptures / iStock

A little girl was one week old when her biological father began sexually abusing her, filming it and distributing the graphic content to others online, a court was told.

With knee-high socks, and a blue button up shirt the Townsville man, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the victims, sat in the dock as the details of his disturbing crimes were revealed.

Crown prosecutor Monique Sheppard opened the sentence on Monday morning in Townsville District Court, claiming the most serious of the man’s 87 charges was the rape of his own daughter, who was referred to as ‘L’.

“The offending against her was indeed so serious, so heinous, deliberate and appalling that a sentence at the maximum term of imprisonment is warranted,” Ms Sheppard said.

In 2020 after a woman received disturbing messages from the man, she reported him to police and his property was searched where authorities found a mobile phone he immediately “distanced” himself from, the court was told.

During the search police uncovered children’s underwear as well as still images taken from video recordings of the man raping his daughter using his fingers, penis and other objects up until she was 20 months old, Ms Sheppard said.

She said the images confirmed 11 discrete times that the man sexually abused the child however the full extent of his offending remains unknown and the man declined to tell police where the videos had been stored.

The court was told that on one of the instances, the man captured himself assaulting his daughter in the change room of what was believed to be a Townsville shopping centre’s toilets.

Generic photo, Townsville Court House. Picture: Shae Beplate.

Police also found images of the man’s son who was referred to as Z and born one week after his daughter to another woman with whom he had also met on the same dating website, the court heard.

The crown said the man would procure his son to rape his daughter and film it.

Ms Sheppard said the man would send the images of his abuse to users via the app Kick, which is were he also made confessions of his depraved behaviour, telling one user he wanted to have a sexual relationship with a child “as young as possible, one day old, one week old, soon as”.

L’s mother met the man online and when she was pregnant she discovered the man had an odd fetish and sought legal help to ensure her daughter’s protection at birth, the court was told.

In a victim impact statement written by L’s mother, that was read aloud in court it said, “His family signed an undertaking to supervise her and him so the lawyers still gave him supervised visits.

“I had to hire a private investigator to prove he was not being supervised in visits and had enough evidence to cease visits.

“L would come home from those unsupervised visits unsettled, crying, and have redness around her privates, crying about the pain saying daddy touched and pointed to her (genitalia) as I changed her nappy.

“Communication, trust, honour, truthfulness, loyalty, respect and family were all words that held a very important meaning in my life shattered with the animalistic lust of a father for his own daughter.”

Throughout her victim impact statement the mother outlined the ongoing consequences the offences have had on her daughter such as not being able to show affection to other family members or friends, having nightmares and discussing suicidal thoughts while still a child.

Snapchat invitation for woman to have sexual relationship with his son

In separate offending, a woman who had a short, sexual relationship with the man after connecting once again online contacted police after receiving disturbing messages from him, the crown revealed.

Ms Sheppard said the man sent the woman a message on Snapchat offering for her to come over and have a sexual relationship with his infant son.

“He suggested she come over to have ‘fun’ with him and that the child would be there and there would be no judgement,” she said.

It was through this report that police initially searched his property.

The court was told both L and Z’s mothers had stopped him from having any contact with the children the year prior.

‘She would wake up to find him in her apartment’

Shortly before this, the man had a relationship with a younger woman with whom he supplied methamphetamine for sex and that woman had a 17-month old daughter, Ms Sheppard said.

According to the crown the man would visit the woman’s home uninvited and at times she would wake to find him in her apartment.

On one particular night the man gained entry into her apartment while she was unconscious on the living room floor, and he filmed himself sexually assaulting her before moving his attention to the child who was also asleep, Ms Sheppard said.

She said he continued to film as he then sexually assaulted the child, which made up some of the content discovered by police when they searched his property for the previous offending.

Through further investigations police confirmed another two young girls were filmed and sexually assaulted or procured into performing sexual acts, and when authorities queried the man he refused to help identify who they were however police would later find out they were the daughters of a woman the man sold marijuana to, the court heard.

During Judge Gregory Lynham’s summing up of the offending he touched on the man’s beasitality charges, and told the court the man had forced a woman to have sex with a dog and also filmed himself engaged in sexual intercourse with the animal.

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A ‘social outcast’

Defence barrister Claire Grant instructed by Legal Aid Queensland said the man who had no criminal history was a “social outcast” while finishing school.

“He did not have a happy childhood, he clashed with his father and felt like an outcast in his family,” Ms Grant said.

“He has been completely abandoned by his family and friends since the charges, that may be unsurprising given the gravity of the conduct but at the end of the day he remains a human.”

She outlined the man’s prior mental health history and stated that from an early age he engaged with mental health services and through his 30s started self-medicating by using illicit substances.

Ms Grant said after being released from a rehabilitation centre the man stopped engaging with services and used a “cocktail of substances” which included methamphetamine, LSD, ecstasy, ketamine and GHB.

The court was told the man reportedly did not remember his offending, and the defence barrister advised the court it should take into consideration his early plea of guilty as a sign of remorse in her bid for a sentence of 20 years rather than life.

“The cost to the state of Queensland would have gone into many weeks of contested court hearings,” Ms Grant.

However, when Judge Lynham finalised his sentencing remarks on Tuesday morning he said he rejected the idea that the man’s plea of guilty indicated any sign of remorse considering he did not help police with investigations and lied to them.

“Your offending can only be described as a reprehensible breach of trust,” His Honour said.

‘Heinous, predator’

As Judge Lynham read his remarks to the court, the man sat on his hands and looked away from His Honour.

“Your offending was not derived from your own admissions but the images found,” Judge Lynham said.

“It’s submitted that your drug addiction impacted your recollection, I reject that submission.

“It was obvious from other evidence that you were well aware of your conduct, you admitted to other users of your offending and submitted images even to those who did not ask for such material.”

“It was heinous and falls into the worst category of this type,” His Honour said.

“You took advantage of mothers you were in short-term relationships with to abuse their children.

“You are a predator.”

The man pleaded guilty to 87 charges which consisted of rape, indecent treatment of a child under 12 of lineal descent, bestiality, producing, supplying and possessing child exploitation, burglary and supplying drugs.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment – he showed no reaction.

Originally published as Townsville father sentenced to life imprisonment for raping, sexually abusing and filming children