Sexual abuse of foster daughter admitted

Sexual abuse of foster daughter admitted

By STEPHEN RYAN Nov. 11, 2013, 11 p.m.

A NEWCASTLE man who used his foster daughter as a virtual sex slave had ‘‘a total disregard for her as a human being’’ at a time when she was ‘‘utterly alone and had nowhere to turn’’, a prosecutor told the district court yesterday.

The paedophile, who cannot be identified, claimed to have no memory of at least a year of sexually assaulting the teen despite him buying her lingerie, pornographic magazines and regularly forcing her to drink alcohol before the assaults, Newcastle District Court heard.

The sexual encounters were part of a heinous household routine on Tuesdays and Saturdays with the offender, aged in his 60s, having to inject his penis with prescription medication in order to achieve an erection, a statement of facts said.

Prosecutor Greg Coles said the girl, who was aged 14 and 15 at the times of the assaults, was in desperate need of support, but was instead subjected to a ‘‘sexual predator’’.

‘‘What she found was not protection, but exploitation,’’ he said.

‘‘The victim here was utterly alone and had nowhere else to turn ... she was helpless.’’

She had been in the care of the offender and his wife from the age of eight, but the wife suffered a lengthy illness and died in 2011.

The assaults started before the wife’s death with detectives from the child abuse squad discovering the offender increased the number of script repeats for his erection medication about two months before the wife’s death.

By September last year the girl had had enough and telephoned a friend for help before the friend’s mother rang police.

The girl was removed from the home while police seized lingerie, pornography and the offender’s medication.

The victim told police that she went along with the abuse for so long because she didn’t know how to say no.

She wrote in a victim impact statement that she was cutting herself and performing other acts of self-harm while being subjected to the abuse.

The offender eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual assault, which carries a maximum jail term of 20 years.

Judge Raymond McLoughlin will sentence the offender tomorrow.