When a six-year-old girl was forced to perform oral sex on a 17-year-old boy, she thought it was normal.
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Now 36 years later, she can see she spent her life being too afraid to feel the pain of what occurred.
Bruce Weissel, now 53, has pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual penetration with a child under 10 years, committed in Bonegilla between 1982 and 1983.
A victim impact statement, read out in Wodonga County Court on Wednesday, revealed the victim’s mother had not believed her when she was first able to speak about the assault in 2010.
“I felt incredibly ashamed,” she said.
“It is far too painful – a little girl who should have been safe in her own home.”
Judge Bill Stuart sentenced Weissel to five months’ jail, but wholly suspended the term for 12 months.
He said the sexual assault clearly had a “catastrophic” impact on the victim, but Weissel would have probably been sentenced to a probation order as a minor if he had been charged in the early 80s.
