A father who raped and impregnated his own daughter then searched online for information on how to falsify paternity tests will serve a reduced sentence upon appeal
The forklift driver from Western , who legally cannot be named to protect the victim, pleaded guilty in 2024 to 40 counts of sexual offending against his daughter who is now aged 17-years-old.
He was charged for the four years of offending between 2019 and 2022, when his daughter was between 11 and 14, and was only caught after one of the teen’s teacher discovered she was pregnant.
He also pleaded guilty to five further counts of possessing child sexual abuse material, which he produced while committing the sexual offences.
He was dealt a 14-and-a-half year prison term for the offending.
But he appealed the sentence on account of his early guilty plea.
He was granted a 10 per cent sentence reduction for the plea, but argued it should have been 25 per cent.
The WA Supreme Court found his appeal to have solid grounds.
The man cannot be named at risk of identifying his daughter as a survivor of child sexual abuse.
His lawyer, Mark Gunning, said the original 10 per cent discount against his sentence was ‘manifestly inadequate’, adding his early plea had saved his daughter from testifying at a trial.
Public prosecutions lawyer Natalie Sinton said the reduction was not unreasonable as the man’s daughter had given birth to his child and he had filmed his acts.
However, she conceded she was unaware of any case where an offender having entered a plea of guilty at the first reasonable opportunity was afforded a discount of only 10 per cent.
The Supreme Court panel of appeals ruled in the man’s favour, deciding the initial 10 per cent reduction had been ‘unreasonable’ and ‘plainly unjust’.
The panel adjusted his sentence to include a 22 per cent discount against the first three counts of offending, and 20 per cent for the remaining accounts.
The man will now serve 12 years, two-and-a-half years less than his original sentence.
‘As strong as the State’s case was in relation to all of the counts, counts one, two, and three were slightly weaker, having regard to the fact that they were not video recorded,’ the panel stated.
The court heard how the offending was ‘brazen’ and occurred on occasion with other children in the home, or on one occasion with other children in the room.
It heard he raped his daughter without using a condom, exposing her to potential diseases and the risk of pregnancy.
Her eventual pregnancy came to light when the school brought it to the attention of the police.
She then told her mother, who has been separated from the father for 15 years, that her baby was his.
She was about 30 weeks pregnant at that stage.
When police arrested and interviewed the father in 2023, they seized his telephone and discovered a series of disturbing Google searches.
They included ‘Can a mother refuse a paternity test ,’ ‘What does a fake DNA test look like,’ ‘How long can a drug test pick up meth,’ and ‘Can police see deleted DMs’.
He later read a news article titled: ‘Man gaoled for fake DNA test to deny parentage of two sons’.
The man’s amended sentence is backdated to March 28, 2023.
He is already eligible for parole.
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