Sex
intruder 'a parent's nightmare'
A 10-year-old girl sexually assaulted in her bed by a
neighbour who climbed through her window has lost all trust and innocence, a
Father of one Stephen Maurice, 32, removed a flywire screen
and climbed through the front bedroom window of the girl's Sunshine house on
Even though the family has moved, the girl is still so
scared she sleeps either with her parents or her father camps on her floor.
The victim, who had turned 10 two weeks earlier, woke about
Maurice, who lived
Judge Paul Lacava said the
incident was "about as serious as it gets" and was "every
parent's worst nightmare".
In her statement, the victim said she remembered going to
bed and waking up about 4am when she felt a hand in her bed.
"I woke up and someone was rubbing me, touching parts
of my body."
The victim said she heard footsteps on the bunk ladder and
saw a figure climbing higher to reach her.
"He kept forcing my legs apart," she said.
After Maurice left, the girl screamed her sister's name and
the pair went to wake their parents.
The father initially thought his daughter had just had a bad
dream, until he discovered the removed flywire screen the next morning.
Maurice, who has a five-year-old daughter from a previous
relationship, was arrested five months later after his fingerprints were
matched to those on the window.
He has pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated burglary
and one count of sexual penetration of a child under 16.
Crown Prosecutor Michele (Michele) Williams, SC, said had
the attack happened two weeks earlier when the girl was nine, Maurice would be
facing a maximum prison term of 25 years.
Sexual penetration of a girl between 10 and 16 carries a
maximum of 10 years.
Ms Williams urged Judge Lacava to
impose a sentence near the maximum, adding the attack was premeditated.
"It has occurred in a child's bedroom where a child and
her family ought to feel that child is safe," she told the pre-sentence
hearing on Thursday.
The court heard Maurice told a psychologist he had seen a
17- to 20-year-old woman or girl at the house, and planned his attack.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the victim's
father said the incident had shaken his world to the core.
He said his daughter's trust, confidence and childhood
innocence had been destroyed.
The family had moved but he would sleep on a mattress on the
girls' bedroom floor, or his daughter would sleep in her parents' bed, because
of her fear, he said.
"I'm no longer the family protector and I see the
questioning in my children's eyes every night when I tuck them into bed,"
he said.
"Knowing he lived only metres from our house makes it
worse."
Maurice's lawyer Leighton Gwynn
urged the judge to consider a more lenient sentence, as his client had pleaded
guilty, shown remorse and had no prior convictions.
Judge Lacava will sentence Maurice
in the next week.