A 55-YEAR-OLD former Tasmanian man was this week handed a 12-year sentence for sex crimes against two of his daughters, which Chief Justice Ewan Crawford described as "cruel and despicable".
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The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was extradited from NSW on June 17 last year and pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in Hobart to two counts of maintaining a sexual relationship with a young person under the age of 17 years.
The court heard the first crime concerned one of his daughters and was committed between about 1989 and 1994, when she was aged between about three and eight. The other concerned another daughter and was committed between about 1990 and 1994, when she was aged between about three and seven years.
Chief Justice Ewan Crawford said the first daughter was subject to aggravated sexual assaults by her father, who penetrated her vagina with his fingers, as well as vaginal rape. He said when she was five years old she contracted genital herpes from him.
Chief Justice Crawford said the second daughter was also subject to aggravated sexual assaults, vaginal rape and one anal rape.
"These crimes were cruel and despicable," he said.
"He owed a duty to his daughters to care, love and nurture them. Instead he abused them for his own gratification in horrible ways and caused them terrible harm."
Chief Justice Crawford said the man had been abused as a child and that when he became an adult he abused alcohol until he was aged in his mid-30s.
He said the man expressed some remorse to a psychologist who provided a report to the court.
The man was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment backdated to June 16, 2009, with a non-parole period of seven years and his name has been placed on the sex offenders register.
