Australia, Sept. 19 -- County Court of Australia issued text of the following judgement on Sept. 17:

1. Ismail Saad[1], you have pleaded guilty on an indictment containing one rolled up charge of sexual assault of a child under the age of 16, contrary to s 49D of the Crimes Act 1958.

2. Sexual assault of a child under the age of 16 carries a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment. This offence also attracts a standard sentence of 4 years' imprisonment.

Circumstances of the offending

3. The circumstances of your offending were read out aloud in court as set out in the summary of prosecution opening dated 12 March 2024.[2]

4. You were aged 21 at the time of the offending. You are a Malaysian national and were initially in Australia on a bridging visa. Prior to your remand, you worked as a farm hand in the Mildura region. Your bridging visa has expired, and you are currently an unlawful non-citizen.

5. The victim, Raya Tengku[3], was 7 years old at the time of the offending. Raya's family had moved to Australia from Malaysia in 2017.[4]

6. You met Raya's father in January 2021. At the time, you were both living in Mildura doing farm work. Around September 2021, you became close friends with Raya's family. You would make arrangements with her mother to visit the family and play with the children.

7. Raya, her father, mother and three siblings relocated to Melbourne. On 18 October 2021, they returned to Mildura to pack up the house and collect their belongings. You gave Raya's mother an iPad to give to Raya for her birthday. You had set the iPad up and it was loaded with money.

8. You came to Melbourne on 13 December 2021. You gave an iPhone 13 to Raya's older sister.

9. A few days later, having stayed elsewhere for a few nights, you turned up at the family's house and asked to stay with them. You stayed with them over the next month or so in Raya's brothers' room.

10. During this period, you formed a particularly close relationship with Raya and her sister. You would often spend time with the children alone. You would hug Raya and her sister or carry Raya around. You would take Raya and her sister to Coles to buy snacks.

11. While staying with the family, you would sometimes use the 'screen time' feature on the Apple devices you had given the children to prevent them from accessing the device for a period of time. You had set up the iPad and iPhone such that you had remote access to the devices and could do this from your own device.

12. The offending subject of charge 1 represents three separate sexual assaults occurring on three separate occasions.

Incident 1

13. Sometime between 16 December 2021 and 7 January 2022, you took Raya on a bike ride around the suburb in which the family resided. You were riding the bike while Raya stood on BMX pegs behind you. You stopped the bike and told her to get off. You sat on the bike with your legs spread and she sat on your lap. You said you wanted to touch her 'privacy' which was a reference to her vagina. She initially refused. You responded by telling her that you would give her money and access to the game Roblox on her iPad.

14. Raya then agreed to let you touch her vagina and counted to five out loud to indicate the time. You put your hand inside her underwear and touched her 'in the middle' of her vagina. Raya states you used your 'whole fingers' and it 'felt bad'. When talking about this incident, she says it was 'sometime inside sometime outside'.[5]

15. On the way home, you told Raya not to tell her mother, or the police, or anybody and threatened to 'screen time' her if she did.

*Rest of the document and Footnotes can be viewed at: (http://www6.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VCC/2024/1447.html)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.