Man Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Raping 7-Year-Old Girl at Wife's Daycare Center By Charlotte Phillipp

A man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for raping a 7-year-old girl who attended his wife’s daycare center.

The 50-year-old man was found guilty of sexually assaulting the girl multiple times between February 2021 and August 2022 while she was attending his wife’s home daycare in Point Cook, Victoria, located southwest of Melbourne, according to 7 News, News.com.au and the Herald Sun.

The girl, who had been attending the daycare in Australia since she was two years old, first complained to her older sister about pain in her genital area in November 2022. She told a doctor the following day what had happened, and local police then got involved.

The abuse took place in a lounge in the home after school and on weekends. Police obtained security camera footage from the lounge room, but no recordings of the abuse had been retained, the outlets reported.

It’s currently unknown if the man, whose identity has not been made public, had undergone a Working With Children Check — a screening process in Australia for assessing people who work with or care for children — or if the families of the other children who attended the daycare have been informed of the case, the outlets reported.

A spokesperson for the Australian Department of Education said the daycare has been shut down and banned.

The man was sentenced to 15 years and six months in prison, with a non-parole period of nine years and nine months, per the outlets. He will be required to complete a sex offender treatment program and will be placed on the sex offenders register for the rest of his life.

During his sentencing, a Victoria judge called the man’s actions “abhorrent,” per 7 News.

“Your victim was only seven years of age. Your actions were abhorrent and, as conceded by your counsel, the offending was humiliating, demeaning and objectifying,” the judge said, adding: “Your offending was opportunistic, committed on occasions where your wife was not in the vicinity.”

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

The girl’s mother said her child is now experiencing difficulties at school and is scared of the dark.

“I blame myself for what happened,” the mother said, per the Herald Sun. “The anxiety, the helplessness, the fear that I failed her is like running a marathon I never signed up for. And it never ends.”

“These are not things a child should ever have to worry about or fear,” she added.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.