Sydney tradesman jailed for sexually assaulting girl

  • Sydney tradesman coaxed eight-year-old girl into garage, sexually assaulted her
  • The 75-year-old man pleaded guilty Wednesday to indecently assaulting the girl
  • He touched the girl’s vagina twice and made the girl touch his exposed penis
  • Judge said on Wednesday it was more ‘disturbing’ because he was a family friend

An elderly Sydney handyman who coaxed an eight-year-old into her parent’s garage so he could indecently assault her has been jailed for at least three years.

The now 75-year-old man pleaded guilty to three counts of indecently assaulting the girl in January 2016 at the family’s eastern suburbs home where he’d been employed for 14 years.

‘It’s clear that they invested in him a high degree of reliance and trust,’ Judge Robert Toner said before sentencing the man at the Downing Centre District Court on Wednesday to six years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of three years. 

The court heard the man touched the girl’s vagina twice and had the girl touch his exposed penis (stock) 

‘The child was clearly confident in his presence… no doubt because of her familiarity with him.’

He said the man was seen as a family friend, ‘which no doubt makes these crimes a little more disturbing’.

‘He deliberately coaxed the child into the garage beside the mother’s car with the specific purpose of hiding her from view,’ Judge Toner said. 

The court heard the man then touched the girl’s vagina twice and had the girl touch his exposed penis. 

'It's clear that they invested in him a high degree of reliance and trust,' Judge Robert Toner said before sentencing the man at the Downing Centre District Court (pictured) on Wednesday to six years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of three years

‘It’s clear that they invested in him a high degree of reliance and trust,’ Judge Robert Toner said before sentencing the man at the Downing Centre District Court (pictured) on Wednesday to six years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of three years

The man’s barrister Brendan Green said his client was remorseful and there was evidence he had ‘some cognitive impairment’.

He has no previous criminal record, hasn’t displayed any other kind of sexual deviancy and has a low prospect of reoffending, he said.

The man will be eligible for release on January 25, 2019. 

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