STATE OF TASMANIA v DJLB 23 SEPTEMBER 2025
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BRETT J
Mr B, a jury has found you guilty of one count of persistent sexual abuse of a young person and one count of indecent assault.
It is necessary for me to determine the facts for the purpose of imposing sentence. In making that determination, I can only find facts adverse to you if I am satisfied of them beyond reasonable doubt, and they are consistent with the verdicts of the jury. Having regard to the issues which arose in the trial and my directions, it is clear that the jury accepted the honesty of the two complainants beyond reasonable doubt. This is not to say that the jury accepted all aspects of their evidence nor found them completely reliable about matters of detail. However, it is an inescapable conclusion that the jury believed the substance of their evidence and rejected your evidence in which you denied all of the allegations. I also found the evidence of each complainant to be honest, and in so far as it related to a description of the crimes committed by you against them, reliable. I intend to proceed on that basis.
At the time of the offending, you were living in your mother’s house with your three children. This had been the case since the end of your long-term relationship. The complainants were children living with their families in the local neighbourhood. They knew your children from school and were in the habit, as were other neighbourhood children, of coming to your house on a regular basis to play with your children. In relation to the crime of persistent sexual abuse, much although not all of the offending, took place in a caravan. which was parked in the driveway beside your mother’s house. Some of the offending also took place in your bedroom in the house. The evidence related to the purchase of the caravan established that it was not at the house until the beginning of December 2021. Accordingly, although the indictment alleges a much longer period in respect of the count of persistent sexual abuse, it is clear that you could not have committed the unlawful sexual acts in the caravan prior to the beginning of December 2021. Given the nature of the complainant’s description of your conduct and in particular, her evidence that the first unlawful sexual act took place in the caravan, I am satisfied all of the offending occurred after that date. Given that the disclosures were made by the children in mid-May 2022, I am satisfied that all of the offending occurred in the six-month period between December 2021 and May 2022. I note that both complainants were 8 years of age during the whole of this period.
In respect of the first count, I am satisfied that an unlawful sexual act or acts as alleged by the complainant was committed on each of the six separate occasions which constitute the crime. Your methodology was to take the opportunity to carry out the abuse when the complainant was at the house playing with your children. In particular, it invariably occurred when the children’s games took her into either your caravan or your bedroom. You would send the other children away and would tell the complainant to remain. You would then carry out the abuse. I am satisfied that the first three occasions occurred in the caravan. On each of those occasions, you took hold of the child’s hand and put her hand on your penis. On at least one occasion, you told her that you wanted her to suck your penis but she refused. Given her demonstration during her interview with police, I am satisfied that on at least one occasion, while you had hold of her hand, you forced her to stroke your penis, which was undoubtedly erect at the time. On a fourth occasion, when you were alone with her in the caravan, you showed her the two videos which depict you engaging in sexual activity. These had been recorded by you on your phone, and were found there by police. One shows you masturbating and the other depicts you having sexual intercourse with an unidentified woman in an outdoor location. Both videos are extremely graphic. You indecently assaulted the complainant on two other occasions in your bedroom. On one, you removed all of her clothes and licked the outside of her vagina. It is not alleged that you penetrated her vagina on that occasion. On the second occasion in your room, you touched her with your fingers on her vagina over her clothing. The complainant’s description of that occasion permits a conclusion that you moved your hand on her in a manner that was intended to simulate masturbation.
I am also satisfied that the identified unlawful sexual acts took place during and as part of an ongoing course of similar conduct during the relevant period. I accept the complainant’s evidence that you committed unlawful sexual acts of the same nature on numerous other occasions. The complainant was not able to offer a reliable estimate of the number of times but she was clear that it happened regularly. I have no doubt that this was the case.
In relation to the second complainant, I find in accordance with her description of your conduct both to police and in evidence. There was one act of indecent assault. It occurred in the caravan. You grabbed her hand while she was in there and in an attempt to have her touch your penis but she pulled away and ran off. I am not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the first complainant was present when this happened, and I accept that, as far as she was concerned, it was an isolated offence.
The offending itself is of a high level of seriousness and your moral culpability for it is also high. The complainants were very young and were at your house to play with your children. Instead of discharging your responsibility as an adult to supervise and protect them, you took advantage of their friendship with your children and their presence at your house to exploit and abuse them. You did this clearly for your own sexual gratification. There was a clear predatory aspect to this offending. The crime against the first complainant was sustained and repeated and although no penetrative acts have been alleged against you, constituted serious sexual abuse. The use of your mouth on the genital area of the first complainant and showing her the sexually graphic videos were acts which were particularly degrading and humiliating for an 8 year old child. More than once, you ignored her pleas for you to stop the abuse, and persisted with it and coaxed her to continue. The acts were all perpetrated while your own children were in the vicinity and there was clearly a significant risk on all of the occasions that they would walk in and witness what you were doing. I am also satisfied that you told the first complainant that she should keep the abuse secret, and if she did not, you would keep doing it. All of this increases the seriousness and damaging nature of the abuse.
I have received impact statements from each complainant. It is clear that the impact on each of them has been significant and devastating. I have no doubt that those impacts are likely to last long term and possibly for life. It is well-known that sexual abuse, particularly at such a young age can have a devastating impact on the victim both in the short and long term. Sometimes the impact can last for a lifetime.
You are 40 years of age. Your criminal history is limited to traffic offences and three common assaults none of which involved sexual offending. You have a good industrial history although you have not been able to work for the past few years due to a serious spinal injury. You require particular pain relief medication which may be difficult to access in prison. You have three children, a son aged 20 and twins aged 10. Until you were remanded in custody, these children lived with you except for every second weekend. During your inevitable incarceration, care of the children will be shared between your mother and their mother.
There is little can be said on your behalf in mitigation. You have shown no remorse and you are not entitled to the benefit of a plea of guilty. Your lack of relevant prior convictions is not unusual in cases of this nature. Your counsel has submitted that I should take into account the effect of incarceration on your children. However, in my view, this does not provide you with mitigation. There is no question that your children have been harmed and will be harmed by this but that is entirely your doing. Your actions have deprived them of the parental care and the type of relationship with you to which they are undoubtedly entitled. In my view, the impact on them increases your moral culpability for your crimes. I will take into account that there has been some delay in bringing this matter to trial. I accept that these allegations have been hanging over your head since the commencement of the investigation in June 2022, and the delay was not your fault.
The serious nature of this offending requires an emphasis on general deterrence and denunciation. Sexual abuse of young children by an adult is abhorrent and deserves severe punishment. The only appropriate sentence is a significant term of imprisonment. I will permit the possibility of parole after you have spent a period in prison which I consider to be the minimum time appropriate for this criminal conduct.
- The orders I make are as follows:
- You are convicted of the crimes of which you have been found guilty;
- For the crime of persistent sexual abuse of a young person alleged in count 1 of the indictment, you are sentenced to a term of six years imprisonment, which will be backdated to 5 September 2025. You are not eligible for parole until you have served four years of the sentence.
- For the crime of indecent assault alleged in count 2 of the indictment, you are sentenced to 6 months imprisonment, which will be served cumulatively upon the sentence imposed in respect of count 1. You are not eligible for parole until you have served four months of that sentence.
- For the purposes of S 92A (3) of the Sentencing Act, I specify that:
- (a) The total term of imprisonment which you are liable to serve in respect of all of the above sentences is six years and six months, commencing on 5 September 2025.
- (b) The total period that you must serve before you become eligible for parole is the aggregate of the non-parole periods imposed in respect of each sentence, which is a total period of 4 years and 4 months commencing 5 September 2025
- I am required to make an order under the Community Protection (Offender Reporting) Act 2005, unless I am satisfied that you do not pose a risk of committing a reportable offence in the future. Having regard to the circumstances of this case, I am not satisfied of that matter and, accordingly, must make an order. The maximum reporting period is for the rest of your life. Given the predatory and opportunistic nature of this offending and the complete lack of any demonstrated remorse, I consider that the risk of future offending is high. Accordingly, I order that your name be placed on the register pursuant to that Act and that you comply with the reporting obligations under that Act for a period of 20 years. Such period is to commence on the date of your actual release from prison.