The 12-year-old girl’s father outside court / Picture: John Grainger
THE father of a 12-year-old child “bride” told her that Australian law was stupid and girls her age should be allowed to get married and have sex, a court has heard.
The girl’s 63-year-old father, who cannot be named, has been charged over “marrying” the 12-year-old to a 26-year-old Lebanese man in an Islamic ceremony in January last year.
The girl’s recorded interview with a child protection worker was played on day three of her father’s trial at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court yesterday.
She said that days after police found out about their Islamic marriage, her father had become concerned about the prospect of the girl’s “husband” going to jail.
“(My father) knows no marriage under the age of 16,” she said.
“Because he says to me the law here is stupid, girls your age should be allowed to get married and have intercourse,” she said.
The girl said she also knew she wasn’t married under Australian law and her relationship with the man was only considered “girlfriend and boyfriend”.
She said the pair were married by an imam in her father’s Hunter Valley living room. After the ceremony, her father told her not to take birth control pills or let her new husband use condoms, she said.
The girl’s Hunter Valley primary school principal also gave evidence and said the girl’s father rang him up to say that she was married and had moved to Sydney.
“(Her father) suggested she needed to be married, she had per period and she had became a young lady,” the man, who cannot be named, said.
In his police interview played to the court, the father told detectives he tried to stop the marriage but after his daughter got her period he felt it was “going to be a problem”.
“I saw that she was getting excited about boys,” he said. “(Marriage) was stopping a sin.”
He said he “didn’t think” about his 12-year-old having sex with the man.
The father was charged with procuring a child under 14 for unlawful sexual activity and accessory before the fact to sexual intercourse with a child. He has pleaded not guilty.
The girl’s “husband”, now 27, pleaded guilty to persistent sexual abuse of a child and was earlier this month sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison with a non-parole period of 7½ years.
The girl, now 14, was found to have fallen pregnant and miscarried soon after her “husband” man was charged.
Her father’s trial continues.
The Downing Centre Court on Liverpool Street / Picture: John Grainger
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