A MAN who indecently assaulted two young girls while they slept in the same bedroom and then, after he was charged nearly nine years later, broke into the family home and stabbed the girls' father in the face while he lay in bed has been jailed for a maximum of 17 years in Newcastle District Court.
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Judge Penelope Wass on Friday condemned the "extremely cruel" and "abhorrent" acts committed by Jason Eric McGovern, also known as Jason Lanesbury, who for nearly a decade has terrified a Windale family.
"What was perpetrated were unwanted, selfish and cruel acts of violence against the rights of his victims and there would be undoubtedly lasting effects," Judge Wass said. McGovern, now 37, pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated indecent assault, causing grievous bodily harm with intent and break and enter causing grievous bodily harm and on Friday was jailed for a maximum of 17 years with a non-parole period of 10 years.
He will not be eligible for parole until 2029.
Judge Wass said sometime between May and December, 2010, McGovern was at a BBQ with family and the victims when the two sisters, who were both aged under 10, went to bed.
McGovern said he was going to the toilet but went into the young girls' bedroom and indecently assaulted both while the other was in the room.
It was a "brazen" attack, Judge Wass said, aggravated by the fact that both girls knew the other was being assaulted and they should have felt safe in bed.
McGovern was in the room for about 10 to 15 minutes before he rejoined the BBQ as if nothing had happened.
It wasn't until eight years later that the girls told a friend and the police were called.
McGovern was charged, granted conditional bail and an apprehended violence order was taken out against him that included the condition that he not go within 200 metres of the girls' home.
But in the early hours of March 8, 2019, after a night spent drinking and gambling, McGovern broke into the home and went into the bedroom of the girls' father.
McGovern turned the light on and the man woke up to see a figure in a hood holding a 30-centimetre knife and standing over his bed.
McGovern then stabbed the man in the chin and shoulder, leaving a 10-centimetre deep wound and causing him to lose three litres of blood.
The victim and the girls all identified McGovern as the man who broke into the home and he was arrested by detectives the next day when he arrived at work.
The fact that he broke into the home and stabbed the father after indecently assaulting his daughters is abhorrent and extremely cruel.
- Judge Penelope Wass said on Friday.
