A horror father preyed on his young daughter for five years. He only stopped his abuse when she went to police. WARNING: Distressing content
The horror crimes, revealed in Mackay District Court, began when she was just 10 years old, continuing over five or six years up to 2021.
He even attacked her as she recovered from surgery.
Crown Prosecutor Matthew Sutton said the man only stopped raping his daughter at their home in the Mackay region after she went to police.
“The violence here is particularly significant,” Mr Sutton said.
“He was her dad and he raped her.”
The 52 year old pleaded guilty to multiple rapes, one count of assault with intent to commit rape, and maintaining a sexual relationship with a child over five years.
His vile conduct included threatening to kill her if she told anyone, holding his hand over her mouth “to attempt to mute her screams” as he anally raped her, and telling her to “shut up when she commenced crying from the pain” during a different rape.
The court heard one time he struck her with the intent to rape her.
The 52 year old pleaded guilty to eight counts of rape and one count each of assault with intent to commit rape and maintaining a sexual relationship with a child.
Barrister Scott McLennan, for the man who cannot be named because it would identify his young victim, argued there was not enough evidence to establish there was “many, many more times”.
He described the offending as “another sad case where essentially the abused became the abuser”, describing how his client was subjected to emotional, physical and sexual abuse growing up at home and in foster care.
“He’s a very damaged man,” Mr McLennan said, adding his client was “extremely ashamed” of his conduct.
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A medical report, tendered to court, indicated there was a link between the man’s PTSD and his offending against his daughter, that during times of stress his judgment could be impacted.
Judge Michael Burnett said five years “seems an extensive period of poor judgment”.
Mr Sutton argued against a reduced moral culpability and pushed for a 10-year jail term which automatically enacts a serious violent offender declaration, meaning the man would have to serve 80 per cent before he could apply for parole.
While Mr McLennan pushed for nine years to serve half because of his guilty plea.
Ultimately Judge Burnett jailed him for 9.5 years but opted against setting a parole eligibility date or an SVO.
The man will have to serve 50 per cent of the term before he can make a freedom bid and since he has already spent 636 days in presentence custody, he will be eligible for parole in May 2026.
He will also be a registered child sex offender.