- Published:
- Friday 19 December 2025 at 9:00 am
| After six years of abuse at the hands of her father, a victim sought justice with the help of a dedicated team of detectives. |
Content warning: This article contains distressing information about child sexual abuse and family violence. Reader discretion is advised.
*The names of the police officers involved in this investigation have been changed to protect the victim's identity and privacy. Their work unit location has also been omitted.
A child’s home is meant to be a sanctuary, a place where families can keep their kids safe from the perils of the outside world.
But what happens when one of the most heinous threats to a child’s safety is already living in the home?
A 12-year-old girl attended school in the state’s east in 2023 and disclosed to a teacher that she had been sexually assaulted by her father.
The school immediately referred the matter to police who sprung into action to investigate the complaint.
When local Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) Detective Senior Constable Louise Brown* took the victim’s statement, she was immediately alarmed by the girl’s account.
“The girl told us that her father had been physically and sexually abusing her since she was six years old,” Det Sen Const Brown said.
“This was very serious incest offending and the victim was understandably extremely distressed.”
Detective Leading Senior Constable Joe Wilson* said that upon speaking with the girl’s mother, the type of offender they would be dealing with quickly became apparent.
“While the offender didn’t have any sexual offending priors on his record, there were several drug-related offences, and family violence incidents towards his partner and kids who didn’t pursue those matters any further because they were just terrified by him,” Det Ldg Sen Const Wilson said.
Uncovering evidence
A few days after taking the victim’s statement, Det Ldg Sen Const Wilson and his colleagues executed a search warrant at the family home to locate any evidence they could find to support the victim’s complaint.
“Unsurprisingly due to his priors, we found a cannabis crop throughout the house, including cannabis seedlings in the children’s bedrooms, as well as a ventilation system, some grow tents and all the various chemicals required to grow cannabis,” he said.
“But we also located a significant number of USBs, mobile phones, hard drives and computers which we took back and analysed.”
One of those USBs that caused grave concerns for investigators was hidden in the false bottom of a jewellery box.
“On that USB, we found videos and images of the complainant where the offender had filmed and photographed some of his abuse against her at their home,” Det Ldg Sen Const Wilson said.
In among the material found on the storage device were some documents suggesting he had connections interstate, prompting concerns from investigators that the offender may flee the state.
With all of this in mind, detectives were ready to arrest the victim’s father as soon as they could – but not before a small spanner was thrown in the works.
“Unbeknown to us, the offender had driven past the house while we were there, saw us and then took off,” Det Ldg Sen Const Wilson said.
“So after we left the house, planning to re-attend later that night to arrest him, he had gone home, seen that we’d been in his bedroom and seized that USB, that critical piece of evidence, and what ensued was a bit of cat and mouse that evening.”
Detectives located the offender early the next morning at his mother’s house, which unearthed a new, disturbing element to the abuse.
“We were quite shocked because we recognised that the backgrounds of some of his child abuse material matched those of this house, his mother’s house, and we realised we were at a secondary crime scene,” Det Ldg Sen Const Wilson said.
“It was at that point that we arrested him, put the information we had to him and started to see just how uncooperative he was going to be in this investigation.
“From that very first interview, he was combative, standoffish and argumentative, refusing to provide access to his devices and gave ‘no comment’ answers to our questions.”
Despite the offender’s refusal to cooperate with police, the evidence investigators had at that time was enough to charge him with several offences, including sexual penetration of lineal descendant, possess and produce child abuse material and other assault-related charges.
He was remanded in custody for a total of 28 months.
Delivering justice
During that period, detectives continued working through the immense amount of evidence on his devices to establish his ownership of the material and confirm his identity as the abuser in the material.
Two and a half years after the investigation began with the victim’s initial disclosure, and several failed resolution offers made by the defence later, the offender pled guilty to the majority of charges and was sentenced to 21 years of imprisonment with a non-parole period of 15 years.
For Det Sen Const Brown, who had been involved and invested in the investigation from that very first statement she took from the victim, the result was satisfying on many levels.
“I remember speaking with the girl’s mother early on and it was clear she was quite hesitant to come to the police with any of the offending because she was so scared of her partner,” she said.
“But for her to draw that line in the sand and support her daughter through this really difficult matter, she instilled her trust in us and it paid off with such a great result at court.”
Det Ldg Sen Const Wilson said that while the family was very satisfied with the outcome, there is no sentence that can reverse the damage done by the offender’s abuse.
“The impact on this young girl has been huge – she rarely leaves her room and she has just completely lost trust in society,” he said.
“But with all that in mind, she and her family are over the moon with this result.
“This will never happen to her again, she’ll never have to see this man again, and by the time he gets out of prison, he’ll be an old man.”
In addition to securing the strong sentence, detectives went the extra mile to ensure the young girl continued to receive as much support as possible in the aftermath of the investigation.
“We lodged a restraint application on the offender’s home that we determined had a couple of hundred thousand dollars’ worth of equity, so we were able to restrain that asset with the assistance of the Criminal Proceeds Squad,” Det Ldg Sen Const Wilson said.
“That house is currently being sold and the funds that come out of that will be distributed to the victim to help in her recovery.”
A tenacious team
While Det Ldg Sen Const Wilson and Det Sen Const Brown played pivotal roles in this investigation, both are quick to share the success with their colleagues who make up this close-knit, local SOCIT.
“There is nothing more important in society than the protection of children, and everyone in this office is well and truly on board,” Det Ldg Sen Const Wilson said.
“It could be the longest day where we are all incredibly tired, our shift could have finished two hours ago, but if a job rolls in we’re all rolling up our sleeves to get stuck in.
“Everyone here is extremely passionate about locking up these offenders.
“That’s why we’re here. That’s why we come to work every day.”
Editorial and photography Cassandra Stanghi
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