From the age of five years old to 19, this northern NSW girl, a promising elite athlete, was sexually, physically and psychologically abused by her parents – to the point she thought it was normal, a court heard.
Over the years the girl was repeatedly tied up and locked in the garden shed or a plastic box in the garage, raped and tortured by her parents. The sexual abuse meted out by her father has left her genital area “abnormal”, the court was told.
The man and his wife, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are from northern NSW and have a background in the teaching profession and elite sport. They have been convicted of dozens of charges over the rape and torture of their daughter. The ABC reports that 16 of the 73 offences the father was convicted of have a maximum sentence of 20 years, while two of the 13 offences the woman has been convicted of have 20-year jail terms.
In her sentencing remarks in Sydney Downing Centre District Court yesterday (Thursday, October 27), Judge Sarah Huggett said it was “rare” to see a case of such severe mistreatment of a child.
The parents of the girl were both elite sportspeople who coached their daughter, also a promising athlete achieving considerable sporting success nationally and internationally.
The court heard horrific details of the years of abuse. It heard the man used a range of implements to torture his daughter during sex sessions that sometimes took place in a shed on his rural property.
Judge Huggett described how the man “took tangled barbed wire with loops on the end and nailed it around her”, “locked her in a box overnight”, “held a chainsaw to her neck”, “held her head under water” and “put her on an ants nest”, the ABC has reported
The court heard that the man used scissors, spanners, nails and other tools to abuse her and told her: “All I’ve ever tried to do is be a good father”.
Judge Huggett said the girl was often in “excruciating pain” and once a wrote out a desperate message “in her own blood”.
The judge said the offences took place while the daughter was training at elite sporting events around Australia.
“If she did not perform a personal best [she] would be taken to the shed when they got home,” she said.
The mother had “abused her role as a mother in the gravest way”
The court heard the girl’s mother gave her instructions about how best to please her husband.
“The mother told the victim it is better to make noises during sexual intercourse, with her father saying ‘It would make it better for you and Dad’,” Judge Huggett said.
Judge Huggett said it took the girl so long to come forward to police partly because her mother had “abused her role as a mother in the gravest way”.
“She signalled that her husband’s deviant conduct was normal,” she said.
The case only came to attention of authorities in 2011 when the victim was admitted to a psychiatric ward.
The ABC reports that after making a statement to police she helped them locate some of the instruments of torture that she had buried in the garden as a young girl.
DNA evidence on the instruments and her clothing found in the family shed corroborated her account and evidence from her sister.
When she was older the daughter attempted suicide multiple times, and spent months in a mental health clinic and did not return to the family home.
Judge Huggett will hand down the sentences for the man and woman today (Friday).
