A 54-year-old local delivery driver, who sexually abused the two young sons of his de facto spouse, over a period of up to 12 years, between 1999 to 2011, has been handed a total effective sentence of 25 years in jail after being found guilty of a heinous list of 18 charges.
He will be eligible for parole after a minimum of 18 years, in 2041, when he will be 71 years of age and will be on the Sex Offenders Register for life, required to keep police informed of his whereabouts.
The man, who cannot be named locally, in order to protect the identity of his victims, first sexually assaulted one of his victims at age 5 when the boy returned home sick from school.
He raped the same child when he was 8 years old in harrowing circumstances read into the public record by County Court Judge Michael McInerney during the sentence hearing last Tuesday, November 26.
He was convicted of a total of five offences against the youngest of his victims, and 13 charges against his older brother, over a period of eight years, from the age of 10 or 11 years, with many of the assaults taking place while other members of the family or friends were in or near the house.
In determining the objective gravity of each of the individual charges, Judge McInerney took into account a number of factors specific to the case including the breach of trust and parental authority to the children and his de facto, and the persistent nature of offending against the boys over a period of 8 to 12 years.
He said the sexual crimes against the two children were both predatory and opportunistic, and featured the domination of the children by the offender, telling them to keep the incidents secret or they would come to serious harm.
In the case of the younger of the two, he not only threatened the child after the rape but also told him “he would be dead if anyone found out” about another serious sexual incident two to four years later, again after the boy had returned home from school.
In relation to the older boy, he told him that “friends of his would make him disappear” if he didn’t do what he was told.
Prior to sentencing, Judge McInerney noted the earlier plea by the man’s defence lawyer, Steven Anger, in which he accepted that a term of imprisonment was inevitable but urged the court not to pass a sentence that was “crushing”. He submitted that his client deserved a discount for having “limited unrelated priors” including no priors for sexual offences against children, that he had a good upbringing, that he had been a hard worker all his life and was doing well in prison undertaking programs and courses.
He included “delay” as a mitigating factor saying that it was four and a half years before the case ultimately concluded, after being charged in January 2020.
Mr Anger also submitted that allowance should be given for a clinical assessment of depression and PTSD.
The judge disagreed.
“What is evident from the report and diagnosis is that [the offender] sees himself as a helper or rescuer,” Judge McInerney said, noting the man’s own assessment of his kind treatment of others and a willingness to do anything to help.
“While he attested to a normal sex drive and explicitly denied any attraction to children, the facts speak otherwise.”
Judge McInerney said he considered [the offender] to be very active sexually and was keen to “be involved in sexual activity when, wherever and with whom he could achieve it, be it a 15 year old young female, for whom he is now serving a sentence for crimes committed against her, his various partners, his de facto spouse and the two male children of his de facto”.
“He was happy to take every opportunity for his own sexual gratification.”
Noting that the offender maintained his innocence, which was his right, while in turn calling his victims “compulsive liars”, he said the man was not entitled to any discount on the basis of either the psychological report or remorse.
In acknowledging the impacts on the two victims, he said the older of the two, now an adult, described severe mental health issues, depression and repeated thought processes reliving the assaults, resulting in mental breakdown and attempted suicide.
He said incest was a crime against the victim and the community resulting in irreparable and fundamental damage to the victim for the perverted indulgence of the adult entrusted with their care.
The older of the victims and his mother, the former de facto spouse of the convicted rapist, were in court to witness the sentencing. The offender appeared by video link from Hopkins Correctional Centre where he is serving a term of imprisonment for the attack on the 15 year old girl.
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