Father jailed for molesting ex-partner’s young daughters

After a young girl went to her stepdad for comfort while having a nightmare, he instead followed her back to her bed, held her down and forced his tongue into her mouth. WARNING: GRAPHIC

When a young girl woke up from a nightmare and went to her stepdad for help, she hoped he would comfort her.

But instead the man followed the 10-year-old back to bed, slid under the covers, held her down, forced his tongue into her mouth and violated the trust placed in him as her carer.

He proceeded to grope the girl and attempted to put his hands under her top despite her telling him to stop, saying that now she was growing and “you can do big people things”.

The abuse was one of three assaults the 32-year-old Toowoomba man visited upon the girl and her 12-year-old sister in 2021.

His offending came to light after the eldest girl told her mother that he also touched her breast and tongue kissed her against her will.

When questioned, the man blamed alcohol.

“I honestly want to deny it but I just don’t remember,” he said.

The man, who cannot be named in order to protect his victims’ privacy, was charged in September 2021 with two counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 and one count of indecent treatment of a child under 10.

On Monday he fronted the District Court to plead guilty to all offences.

Defence barrister Nathan Edridge told the court his client had a spotless criminal history until he assaulted the two girls and that the offending was fuelled by alcohol.

Despite this, Mr Edridge could not provide the court with clear evidence that the man had taken steps to address his drinking via counselling.

Instead he provided statements from the man’s mother and the mother of his new partner which spoke of him being a “good father to his biological sons”.

In sentencing Judge Michael Williamson said he took into account the man’s early plea and noted that it saved his victims the pain of revisiting the assaults in court.

He also noted that the man come from a good home and had a very limited criminal history but was critical that the man had not engaged in counselling to address his problems with alcohol or sexual offending.

The man received a nine-month jail sentence and will be eligible to apply for parole on January 23, 2023.