Man, 76, pleads guilty to sex offences against child aged just five

The man pleaded guilty in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on April 17 to three charges of intentionally sexually penetrating a person he knew to be his lineal descendant and one charge of causing or allowing a child under 16 to sexually touch him in circumstances where the touching was contrary to community standards of acceptable conduct.

In a police interview on January 19, the septuagenarian admitted to "persistent penetrative sexual offending against the complainant from the age of five years old".

According to court documents, the self-confessed paedophile - who was living in a different town to the girl - was a regular dinner guest and weekend visitor to her home, where he would sleep in the spare bedroom.

He told Central Victorian Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team detectives the first time he sexually abused her was when after picking her up and putting her on his hip, he rubbed her buttocks in a sexual manner.

"It just escalated from there," he said. "It got a bit more frequent".

Other incidents he described including him raping her orally.

The first time the girl remembered the man sexually assaulting her was when she stayed home from school, with him looking after her, while her mother and father were at work.

On one occasion she remembered being in her pink Peppa pig nightie and purple unicorn-patterned underwear when he digitally penetrated her while she sat on his lap.

His actions had hurt, she said, and left her sore.

On another occasion she was wearing her "pretty pink dress with love hearts on it" when he slid his hand down her neck and touched her nipples.

The man had told her what he was doing was "naughty" and that she shouldn't tell her parents because he'd get into trouble.

However, after his crimes were revealed in December the girl said she had tried to talk about them but hadn't been understood.

On Sunday, December 10, a woman (whose identity was redacted from court documents) walked into the spare room as the man was adjusting his clothes and saw him jump back from the bed while the girl, who was in the bed, pulled the doona up to her chin.

The man at first claimed the pair had been "just kissing and cuddling" but after the woman continued to demand "What the f*** has been going on?" admitted he had been touching the girl.

The woman then told him to leave the house and never come back.

In a recorded conversation the following day, the girl told the woman about what had been happening and said she had tried in the past to talk about his sexual offending but hadn't been understood.

The woman didn't recall this conversation.

When the accused was arrested at his home on December 12 police noted he had facial injuries that suggested he had been beaten up.

The man refused to say who had hit him, telling police only that the incident occurred around 11pm the night before.

Magistrate Megan Aumair ordered the man, who has been in custody since his arrest, to front the Bendigo County Court on July 1.

She also granted an indefinite intervention order prohibiting him from contacting the girl.