Man Raped Daughter For Years Since She Was 4, Chained Her Up For Defying His ‘Rules’

An Australian man was sentenced to eight years in prison Tuesday for raping his daughter for a decade since she was four and chaining her up for defying his "rules".

The court heard that the 69-year-old unidentified man raped his daughter repeatedly for over a decade. The abuse worsened in 2012 when the girl, who was 14 at that time, began defying his rules. When his daughter went to a sleepover despite misbehaving in school that day, the man chained her up for more than 26 hours to stop her from escaping and only fed her water and bread to “discipline” her. When he finally took her out of the home, the accused handcuffed her to the car. He also tied a plastic lid around her neck which stated that she was a runaway.

A relative who found her chained up at home alerted police about it. However, the victim was so traumatized that she only helped with the investigation when she turned 18. She told the investigators that her father had sexually as well as physically abused her for years. At a trial earlier this year, the accused was found guilty of five charges of indecent assault, rape, attempted rape and deprivation of liberty.

During the sentencing Tuesday, Judge Wendy Gillan said the accused believed his actions were justified and blamed the victim for his behavior.

“You humiliated her by removing her belongings from her room, requiring her to wear her school uniform, feeding her bread and water, providing her with a bucket for toileting and requiring her to shower with a chain on her leg and the door open. You did that at a time you knew her to be quite fragile and it had the effect of rendering her incapable of pursuing the matter until she had spent a great deal of time apart from you,” the judge said.

The court sentenced him to eight years in jail and gave him a life-long restraining order preventing him from contacting his daughter. The accused will, however, be eligible for parole after six years.