Darling Downs dad found guilty of raping his four-year-old daughter

A young woman who endured daily ‘unspeakable’ sexual abuse at the hands of her father as a four-year-old girl watched stoically as a Toowoomba judge sentenced the man for the ‘sickening betrayal’.

A Darling Downs father found guilty of repeatedly sodomising his four-year-old daughter has been sentenced.

The now 36-year-old man cannot be named to protect the identity of the girl, who sat stoically in court with her head held high during the man’s sentence.

Despite the man denying he raped and maintained a sexual relationship with the girl when she was aged four and five, a jury found the tradesman guilty of the offences at a trial held in Toowoomba District Court in March 2024.

The jury was told the man preyed on the child when her mother would leave the home for brief periods of time, such as trips to the grocery store.

The Toowoomba courthouse, police station, and watch house. Picture: Peta McEachern

During the man’s sentence before the same court on Wednesday, May 22, Judge Leanne Clare SC said it was clear to her and the jury that the survivor was telling the truth.

“The damage you caused to (her) will be lifelong,” she told the man.

“She is your own flesh and blood, she was dependent on you to protect her and instead you defiled her in unspeakable ways, over and over.

“It was a sickening betrayal and no amount of therapy could possibly erase that trauma.”

Judge Clare told the man he robbed the girl of a normal and carefree childhood and noted the girl showed “courage and dignity” during the trial.

“But it is unlikely, (she said), that she will ever be entirely free of what you did through the harm that you caused.”

Judge Clare said the girl was threatened into silence and terrified during the rapes which occurred weekly for several months.

“It’s clear when she first spoke to the police (at age six) she didn’t understand everything that you did but (her) descriptions were graphic and compelling,” she said.

“You attempted to corrupt her with (homemade) pornographic videos … you told her that’s what fathers and daughters did. She referred to the two of you following instructions with the video.

“You fornicated with a sex doll in front of her.

“It was your ‘special secret’, it’s also a full-blown sexual relationship.”

The court was told the man was at a “moderate risk” of reoffending and his criminal history included domestic violence offences, and indecent exposure in a public place.
The court was told the man, who had an unremarkable upbringing, had spent 502 days in custody on remand and was having difficulty with anxiety in jail.No one was in court in support of him when he was sentenced to a 12 year, six month jail term.