Carly Crawford
December 31, 2006 12:00am
A CONVICTED pedophile has been sleeping in the same bedroom as a nine-year-old girl.
And horrified friends of the girl say he has tried to befriend her with gifts of cash.The Department of Human Services launched an investigation into the scandal and wants a formal ban on contact between the child and the tradesman, 28, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
The man served eight months’ jail after a jury convicted him of six counts of sexual penetration of a child under 16.
He and a friend abused two 14-year-old girls in 2003 after plying them with alcohol and marijuana.
The judge presiding over the case said the man’s history of lying to police, theft and driving offences indicated he disregarded the law when it suited.
The man was freed from prison in August and has lived in Melbourne’s outer suburbs with his sister, who has three children – a boy, 4, a girl, 3, and the girl aged nine who is in the permanent care of a family friend.
A concerned friend of the carer told the Sunday Herald Sun of the situation.
The friend said the man had given $50 notes to the girl, who stayed at the home every second weekend.
“He’s been sleeping in her room and showering her with gifts and he has no respect for the law,” the friend said.
“How can a mother put her children in that sort of danger?” The girl’s mother repeatedly hung up on the Sunday Herald Sun yesterday.
Department of Human Services officials investigated the arrangement in early December after the girl told her carer.
The girl also told worried department workers the pedophile slept on a mattress on the floor of her room while she slept on the bed.
The department has asked the Children’s Court to change her access orders so that contact between the man and the girl is explicitly banned. The matter is before the court.
The man is on the sex offenders’ register and Victoria Police said he was complying with the monitoring conditions.
A department spokesperson said it was “satisfied” the man no longer resided at the home.
February 16, 2009 at 5:20 pm
i was exully abused as a young gril as was my younger sister..it was my mothers best friend and she would not listen to us..thought was just didn’t want them to babysit..so i now where the poor kid is coming from.
i guess people who are the bad mans family want to believe their brother or son would never hurt “their” children..they don’t want to think he’s a sick human being like that..it’s hard on everyone when snakes are slittering around..i believe the court should never have left him out of jail forever when he drugged little girls and abused them..the court did wrong. And i’m not saying the Sister is right for trusting her brother..in her heart she probably trusted him…sad.