A Melbourne man has been sentenced to six years in prison after admitting to sexually abusing his stepdaughter and her best friend on the South Coast more than a decade ago.
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During sentencing acting Bega District Court judge Peter Berman said the 52-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had abused the two girls for his "own sexual pleasure" between 2006 and 2008.
"He did what he did simply because he enjoyed it," acting judge Berman told the court.
Dressed in a grey suit, the man, who had pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated indecent assault and sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16, bowed his head as acting judge Berman sentenced him to a non-parole period of three years during the hearing on Monday, August 26.
Crown prosecutors said the man had used "force and coercion" during his offending, and had continued the sexual assaults after being told to stop by his victims.
Acting judge Berman said while a psychologist's report stated the man, who was 40 at the time his offending began, had shown remorse after his arrest, he had at no point apologised to his victims.
He said there was no evidence the man's reported post traumatic stress disorder, which he claimed was caused by being forced to serve in the Greek army after being stopped at an airport while on holiday in the 1980s, had anything to do with his offending.
"He abused the two complainants thinking nothing, apparently, of what it would cause them. He was seeking sexual gratification," he said.
He described the offending as "opportunistic", and said the man had tried to "keep his offending undetected" from those around him.
The man's former stepdaughter, who was a teenager at the time of the offending, could not hold back tears as her mother read her victim impact statement to the court. She described how the offender was "always putting her down", and how the abuse had caused anxiety, depression, a sense of helplessness and guilt, isolation from her family, sleeplessness, the loss of her best friend, a marriage breakdown and significant weight gain.
"It has impacted those who are close to me because I couldn't tell them what happened. My secret was a burden on myself," the mother read while trying to hold back tears.
He will be eligible for parole in August 2022.
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