A former Tasmanian man “gravely betrayed” his daughter’s trust, a Supreme Court judge has said

A FORMER Tasmanian man who was extradited from Victoria has been sentenced to eight and a half years’ jail for maintaining a sexual relationship with his 12-year-old daughter in the 1980s.

A former Tasmanian man who was extradited from Victoria in December, has been jailed for maintaining a sexual relationship with his daughter in the 1980s.

A FORMER Tasmanian man who was extradited from Victoria in December has been sentenced to eight and a half years’ jail for maintaining a sexual relationship with his 12-year-old daughter in the 1980s.

In the Supreme Court in Hobart, Acting Justice David Porter today sentenced the man, now 68 and who cannot be named for legal reasons, saying the sexual offending took place between January 1983 and June 1985, mostly in the family home, but also at the man’s workplace.

Acting Justice Porter said the man’s moral culpability and criminality were “very high”.

“Your daughter was entitled to look to you for safety and nurturing,” he said.

“You gravely betrayed the trust she was entitled to place in you.”

Acting Justice Porter said the Crown case relied on six incidents, but he said they were part of a pattern of behaviour that occurred every two to three weeks, ranging from kissing to vaginal sexual intercourse.

Justice Porter said the man’s daughter eventually realised that what her father had done was wrong.

He said she left home at 16 to go to a boarding school.

When she was aged in her 20s, Justice Porter said the daughter told her mother what had happened.

In 2015, the victim made a complaint to NSW police.

Acting Justice Porter said the man was interviewed by Victoria Police in February 2017 and made admissions.

“He said he had guilt hanging over him because he knew he had done the wrong thing,” Acting Justice Porter said.

The man also told police “he was doing this so that she knew how to be with men”.

Acting Justice Porter said the man was cooperative with police, and when his wife and other daughter confronted him about the allegations, he did not deny them.

“Most regrettably her mother and siblings have ostracised her,” Acting Justice Porter said of the victim.

He said the man’s conduct had left his daughter feeling hopeless and with low self-esteem. He said the woman turned to alcohol in her late teens, and had two failed marriages that she put down to the problems she has with trust and with sexual relationships as a result of the sexual abuse.

The man pleaded guilty to the charge on April 12.

Acting Justice Porter said he was satisfied the man was remorseful. He also said the man’s behaviour must be condemned.

He sentenced the man to 8½ years’ jail. He will be eligible to apply for parole after serving half of that sentence and his name will be placed on the sex offender register for three years after his release from prison.