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A Queensland man who walked free from court despite being convicted of horrific historical sexual abuse of a child will instead serve time behind bars after an appeal against his suspended sentence was successful.
The man, now aged in his early 40s, escaped jail time last year after being convicted of inflicting abuse on his younger sister when he was both a child and an adult.
After inquiries were made by Brisbane Times, Queensland’s Attorney-General Deb Frecklington lodged an appeal of his suspended sentence which she argued was manifestly inadequate given the seriousness of the offending.
The man abused his young sister over many years in the 1990s and early 2000s, including digitally raping her. He cannot be named because some of the assaults occurred when he was a minor.
The abuse started when his sister was eight years old and he was a teenager, and continued for six years until she was about 14. It continued when her brother was an adult in his early 20s and returned to live in the family home after a period away.
The offender pleaded guilty last year to one count of rape, and eight counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16.
But a district court judge spared the man jail last year, ruling there were “exceptional circumstances” in the case, including that the man was a victim of sexual abuse himself and had been encouraged by his abuser to offend against his sister.
After Frecklington’s intervention, the case was heard earlier this week in Brisbane’s Court of Appeal before Justice David Boddice handed down the court’s decision on Friday afternoon where the offending was described as “severe and troubling”.
The four-year jail term was upheld, but the man is required to spend at least one year behind bars, with the remainder of his sentence suspended.
“Whatever might be thought of the immaturity of the respondent when he commenced his offending, he returned to it in 2002 through to 2005 when he was 19 and 23,” the appeal judges found.
“He manipulated and threatened his younger sister and persisted despite knowing she was upset (crying) and despite assurances from him that he would not do it again.
“His behaviour speaks of the serious breach of the trust that his younger sister should have been able to expect of him.
“He employed force to hold her down.
“He sought to minimise or conceal his conduct when interviewed by the police and completely ignored his conduct as an adult.”
During the hearing on Monday, defence barrister Scott Neaves said his client was raised in a household where sexualised conduct with children was “normalised”, as his mother had a relationship with a 15-year-old boy, who lived in the home as his stepfather.
But this argument was contested during the hearing by Boddice who said: “It is a well-known fact that often those who commit sexual offending against children have been offended against”.
“That is the cycle that needs to be broken. So what about this case is exceptional? When you read the psychological reports, they don’t seem to deal at all with why he went back and offended while he was an adult. I would have thought that’s the very thing that was most disturbing about it all.”
In the ruling handed down on Friday, the appeal judges ruled in favour of Frecklington’s submission that the “appropriate sentence orders ought provide for a period of actual imprisonment”.
James Hall is the News Director at the Brisbane Times. He is the former Queensland correspondent at The Australian Financial Review and has reported for a range of mastheads across the country, specialising on political and finance reporting.Connect via X or email.
Cloe Read is the crime and court reporter at Brisbane Times.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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