Father-of-three who kidnapped and raped 11-year-old girl for five hours says his 17-year sentence is too long
A sexual predator has begun the process of appealing his 17-year prison term after he was convicted for kidnapping and raping an 11-year-old girl for almost five hours. In a bid to reduce the severity of the sentence, Brett David Hill has now filed a notice of intention to appeal the same with the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal.
Around 19 months ago, Hill kidnapped the youngster when she was on her way to school in Newcastle and proceeded to rape her at three separate locations, the Newcastle Herald reports. In December, an NSW District Court judge jailed Hill for a maximum of 23 years and six months, with a non-parole term of 17 years.
The victim later described to court how she was left in permanent fear of strangers after Hill ruined her childhood, adding that she even contemplated suicide. In conclusion, Judge Roy Ellis ruled that what Hill had done was extreme and that he had displayed no remorse, empathy, or compassion during the cruel attacks on the girl.
But since being in custody, the 49-year-old rapist has been assaulted several times and will be eligible for release only in 2035, when he is 64 years old.
Hill claimed in his defense that he had been smoking synthetic cannabis and binging on pornography before he kidnapped the girl. However, he could not explain his crimes. "That is the big question with me, is why I did such a thing," he told a psychiatrist.
Hill abducted the girl at about 9:15 am on June 12, 2018, when she was walking through Hudson Park at Adamstown Heights. He then went on to indecently assault the girl before she "uttered a secret code word" to save herself from further attack.
"I touched her and she said 'unicorn', which she explained was what she said when she thought she was about to be hurt," Hill told the psychiatrist.
For the next five hours, the father-of-three sexually assaulted the defenseless schoolgirl before ultimately releasing her at about 2:15 pm at Kotara railway station.
While speaking to the psychiatrist, Hill claimed he had split from the mother of his children the previous year and had no friends when he kidnapped the girl. He also said he was heavily abusing drugs and had become addicted to watching child pornography on his phone. "I woke up that morning... I had drunk a lot the night before," Hill said, according to a report tendered to court. "I remember sitting on the lounge. I remember going out and smoking half a joint of homemade synthetic stuff. It affected me so I don't remember what I did."
"I remember being at the park and that a girl was underneath me. I had her come to the car with me. She just walked with me. I told her I would bring her back," he recalled. "I drove her around for half an hour or 40 minutes. I took her to some bushland. I told her to get her gear off."
"Don’t move, I have a knife. Shut up or I’ll kill you. Do you want to live tomorrow?" he warned her before the horrific assault, the court heard. Hill put a plastic bag over the girl's head once he was finished assaulting her. He then dropped her at the train station and instructed her to walk the rest of the way home.
Police were able to arrest the predator four days later after the girl gave them a detailed description of her attacker.