Man jailed for seven years for sexually penetrating best mate's daughter, aged 10

A 32-year-old man has been jailed for seven years and placed on the sex offender's register for life for sexually penetrating his best mate's 10-year-old daughter.

The man, who The Courier cannot name for legal reasons, was aged 27 when he inappropriately touched the girl at her regional Victorian home on December 31, 2015.

He had been staying at his best mate's house and in the early hours of the morning after smoking cannabis, he was given permission to take the girl to McDonald's on the provision she go to bed on their return.

But the man started touching the girl's back, breasts and buttocks under her clothing on his own bed set up in the lounge room. This continued into the early hours of the morning, with the man going back-and-forth to the girl's father's bedroom.

After returning to the lounge room on one occasion, the man touched the girl's neck and hairline before sexually penetrating her and he continued to touch her for 30 minutes until she began to cry.

During the day, the man took the girl shopping twice to buy her clothes and told her not to tell her father about the incident. Later, the man left the house and the girl gave her father a note saying the man had touched her.

The man's DNA was found on the girl's underwear but in a police interview in January, 2016, he denied the allegations. He was charged in June, 2017.

County Court Judge Meryl Sexton told the man at a sentencing hearing in Melbourne on Friday, sexual offences against children were serious but a number of factors made his offending particularly serious.

"She was very young at age 10 which is two years under the age of which the maximum (of 25 years' imprisonment) is set," Judge Sexton said.

"The offence was brazen in that her father and sister were home, oblivious the offending was occurring in another room."

The judge said the court must denounce the man's offending.

"By my sentence I must seek to deter you from sexually offending again against children. My sentence must also deter others from committing such a crime," Judge Sexton said.

The man, who has already served 239 days of his sentence, will be eligible for parole in five years. He pleaded guilty to sexually penetrating a child under 16 years.

Judge Sexton said if the man did not plead guilty and had been found guilty after a trial, he would have received 11 year' imprisonment with a minimum of eight-and-a-half years.

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