A District Court judge has sentenced a 65-year-old Mandurah man to six years in prison for the sexual assault of his step-daughter.
The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, was convicted in September of assaulting the girl 20 years ago when she was four years old and then again when she was 11 or 12.
He had pleaded not guilty to a string of charges which were alleged to have happened in Mandurah, but was only convicted of one count of aggravated sexual penetration of a child and two counts of aggravated indecent dealing of a child.
In sentencing, Judge Troy Sweeney said the man’s offending was “frightening and traumatic” for his victim and was a “gross breach of trust because [the offender] was supposed to be a father figure”.
“Her life has been seriously impacted by her relationship with [the offender],” she said.
Judge Sweeney said the jury had accepted evidence the offences for which the man had been convicted were not isolated incidents, but formed a pattern of abuse occurring over many years.
She sentenced him to six years imprisonment, backdated to September 2016.
The man will serve four years before being eligible for parole.
Nathan Hondros
Senior Journalist for the Mandurah Mail, Australian Community Media, and Fairfax Media.
Senior Journalist for the Mandurah Mail, Australian Community Media, and Fairfax Media.
