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A MAN who sexually assaulted his daughter during a three-month period when she was 12 and 13 years old has been sentenced to nine years jail.
The 53-year-old truck driver cannot be identified to protect the victim and was sentenced to a total period of 12 years, but will be released on supervised parole on August 4, 2025.
Handing down the sentence in Orange District Court on Friday, Judge Jennifer English acknowledged the man had been in custody since he was arrested on August 5, 2016, pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and was unlikely to re-offend.
However, she said the offender displayed symptoms of cognitive distortions by giving himself permission for his actions.
“When giving evidence he appeared in some way to lay blame on the victim or his [now] ex-wife,” Judge English said.
“He said the victim had in some way come on to him … his belief that she wanted to have sexual intercourse was that she did not tell him to stop or tell anyone.”
At the start of the Easter holidays in 2015 the man took his daughter away on a truck driving trip from Orange to Brisbane and had sexual intercourse with her and sexually abused her on multiple occasions at various truck stops.
The sexual abuse continued at their home after the school holidays at times when the girl’s mother and other family members were not around, until the girl reported it.
“He has violated in the most heinous ways a very young girl, being his very young daughter,” Judge English said.
“She was alone in the truck in the middle of nowhere, she was alone a very long way from home with the offender, there was no one she could have complained to.
“Not only was she sexually assaulted while she was away with her father, she was not even safe in the confines of her own home.”
During a cross examination on Thursday, the offender showed little emotion and said he initially assaulted his daughter to get back at his wife because she stopped having sex with him.
“I just thought it would be a way to get back at my wife, I was wrong,” the offender said.
“It was wrong, I shouldn’t have done it.
“I started to feel sorry when I was sitting in jail.”
When the crown prosecutor asked about the impact the abuse had on his daughter, the offender said he started teaching her guitar.
“We became closer than what we were, we did lots of things together. I took more interest in what she was doing,” he said.