A man who sexually assaulted a young girl in his Melbourne home as her sister watched from the next bed about 30 years ago has been jailed.
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The man, now 74, was sentenced in the Victorian County Court on Tuesday to three years in jail, with 18 months to be suspended.
He'd previously pleaded guilty to one count of sexual penetration of a person aged 10 to 16, between May 1987 to December 1988.
The man looked after the daughters of a woman, whom he started to date in 1981 and separated with in 1986, at his home in Melbourne's southeastern suburbs.
He continued to see the girls and look after them every second weekend.
On one occasion, the man asked the victim to sleep in the big bed with him and her sister. She was aged about 10 or 11, initially declined but then got in.
The man touched her chest and vagina despite the girl telling him not to.
He then repeatedly asked her to get into the smaller bed with him in the same room, which she eventually did because she was frightened he would get angry.
He started raping her as she tried to get him to stop.
"The complainant's sister, who was in the room, woke to see you and the complainant under the moving bed covers of that bed," Judge Richard Smith said.
The victim told her cousin that the man had done something to her six months later, told more family in 2011 and reported it to police in 2017.
He sent a message to the victim saying he needed to apologise to her, that he had done everything wrong and he was ashamed, the court was told.
He later told her over the phone he did not remember the incident, and this was echoed in his statement to Queensland police in 2017.
The man and the victim's mother also had a son together.
The court heard the man has emphysema, type two diabetes, back pain and uses a walking stick, along with other health issues.
He will be listed as a registered sex offender for 15 years.
Australian Associated Press
