A VILE grandfather who sexually abused his young granddaughter on two separate occasions before telling her to keep it a secret has been jailed.
The Swan Hill man, who to protect the victim’s identity can’t be named, pleaded guilty to two charges of incest.
The girl was aged eight and then 12 at the time of the offences, between August 2018 and August 2019 and in June 2023.
The first offence happened at a truck stop between Bendigo and Swan Hill and the 2023 offence in was carried out in a shed on a Swan Hill property where the offender’s daughter and granddaughter lived.
In sentencing in the County Court in Mildura on July 25, Judge Simon Moglia outlined a summary of the abhorrent offences, which The Guardian has chosen not to disclose.
Judge Moglia said the granddaughter’s victim impact statement described moving away from the home after the offence and having to leave her friends.
“At school, she had told a friend about what happened and that person told others, which led to bullying and what can only be described as nasty behaviour by other students,” Judge Moglia said.
“Tellingly, while she properly identified what you did as not being normal, she in fact describes how the effect of that was that she and the rest of the family were treated as if they were not normal.
“This is an abhorrent consequence and your granddaughter should not have experienced any of that.”
The daughter’s statement expressed feelings of guilt and shame for not knowing about what her father was doing and therefore not stopping it.
“She has broken down emotionally and has nightmares,” Judge Moglia said.
“Understandably, she feels betrayed by you – a person she had previously held in high regard and had entrusted with her children.
“She describes your offending and its consequences as having disrupted the entire extended family and that it is like falling into a pit.”
Judge Moglia said the plea showed that the offender accepted responsibility for what he did.
“Your settling of the case has a real benefit, both to the child witnesses involved and other family members, but also the wider community, all of whom have been spared the burden and cost, both personal and otherwise, of a trial,” he said.
“You have also written a letter of apology to your granddaughter, your daughter and other members of the family, acknowledging that your words will be inadequate.
“You expressed your profound sorrow to your granddaughter for the ‘disgusting’ things you did, and while you will be sorry for the rest of your life, you only hope that she might be able to find happiness and fulfilment.
“You apologised to your daughter for destroying her trust in you and that you will never forgive yourself.
“Although you cannot communicate with your daughter or her children because of an intervention order, and that they might quite justifiably not want to hear anything from you, I accept that your letter is evidence of genuine remorse.”
Judge Moglia said the offending could only be described as a “gross breach of trust”.
“As has been expressed, it has had a disastrous set of consequences,” he said.
“In the first incident, by way of establishing the gravity of what you did, your granddaughter was only about eight years old.
“The age difference between you was, of course, large, she was entrusted to your care to take her to Swan Hill away from her home and you used a form of psychological coercion when you told her, as her grandfather, not to tell anyone.
“The second charge represents a repeat of your earlier offending, it was therefore not isolated, it occurred when your granddaughter was still only 12, it happened in your shed and so away from the rest of the family who lived in the house, but it happened within the overall confines of where she lived and where she was entitled to feel and be safe from any kind of offending.
“I accept the contents of the victim impact statements that spell out the harmful consequences of what you did and I am satisfied that the harm you caused will continue in the long term.”
The man was jailed for seven years and three months with a non-parole period of four years and five months.
He will be on the sex offenders’ register for life.
