A father who drugged and sexually abused his daughter was jailed for 13 years by the High Court after pleading guilty to eight offences. His daughter was aged 11 to 12 during the offending, which took place from December 2022 to April 2023.
The offences comprised four counts of administering drugs to obtain or facilitate an unlawful sexual act, three counts of indecent assault and one of attempted rape. The court heard that he gave her sleeping medication on multiple occasions. In one episode, he presented the pills as vitamins; on another, she was given 15 pills at once.
The sentencing judge, Andrew Chan, said the medication caused the girl to hallucinate and that an excessive dose could suppress breathing. She contacted her mother about the abuse, and a later hospital urine test detected zopiclone, a sleeping medication.
Chan cited the girl’s young age, the medication and the father’s exploitation of his position as her parent as aggravating factors. He said the attempted rape was as serious as rape in this case; some sentences were ordered to run concurrently, making the total 13 years. The judge said the girl did not want to revisit the events for a trauma report and that the court understood her position.