"He Took from Me My Childhood': "Senior of the Year" Jailed for Child Rape

Australian Associated Press
July 13, 2018

https://au.news.yahoo.com/took-childhood-senior-year-jailed-child-rape-092127963.html

The dark past of a man, thought to be a model citizen, has caught up to the 65-year-old and landed him a jail sentence for six child sex offences committed in the late 1980s.

For the past 25 years, Gordon Lloyd Adams had appeared to be a pillar of his Queensland community.

A Gympie Salvation Army volunteer, he was also a supporter of the local rural fire service. Adams was even once the town’s nominee for Australian Senior Citizen of the Year.

But it was revealed in Brisbane District Court on Friday, that he was far from a model citizen, when he was sentenced to six-and-a-half years behind bars.

Adams pleaded guilty in May to the offences committed in Deception Bay, including the rape of a nine-year-old girl, after the victim came forward in 2016.

In the Brisbane District Court, Gordon Lloyd Adams was sentenced to six-and-a-half years behind bars. Source: AAP

The court heard the victim’s life had been irrevocably affected by the abuse and she had suffered major mental health issues and turned to substance abuse in later life.

“He took from me my childhood,” she said in a victim’s impact statement read out in court.

“[I] sense people will think I am dirty and worthless because of what happened to me.”

A father of 11, Adams, who has a prior conviction of carnal knowledge of a child in NSW when he was in his 20s, suffers heart, liver and bowel problems.

He claimed to police he could not remember committing the offences due to a stroke in 2002.

In sentencing, Judge Paul Smith noted his contribution to the community and poor health, but said the offending was too serious not to impose a jail sentence

“It’s clear this offending had a significant effect on her,” Judge Smith said.

“She was vulnerable. There was a breach of trust here.”

Adams will be eligible for parole in March 2020.