WA man jailed for raping six-year-old niece

A Broome District Court jury has found a 54-year-old Kimberley man guilty of raping his six-year-old niece on multiple occasions.

The man committed the offences in 2016 and 2017.

He has been sentenced to 10 years behind bars.

A Broome man has been sentenced to 10 years' jail for raping his niece several times over a 12-month period.

Warnings: This story contains details of sexual assault.

The 54-year-old man, who the ABC is not naming to protect the victim, appeared in Broome District Court this week charged with three counts of sexual penetration of a child under 13.

On Thursday, the jury found the man guilty of all three charges.

Two of the charges related to abuse at Middle Lagoon, about 180 kilometres north of Broome, and the third took place at a residence in Broome.

The court heard the offences occurred between June 2016 and June 2017 when the girl was aged six and seven, but police were unable to establish the exact dates.

During the trial, the court was played a prerecorded cross-examination of the complainant, now 17.

She told the court the first incident occurred 10 years ago while she was staying at Middle Lagoon, when the man took her for a drive about 6am.

She said the pair travelled for about five minutes to an isolated area, away from where people were in their caravans and that the man parked and abused her.

The victim also described a second incident at her family home in Broome, where she said the man entered her bedroom in the middle of the night.

She said the assault lasted for about five minutes before the man left the room without saying anything.

The victim told the court she “had gotten used to” being sexually assaulted.

She said she did not tell anyone about the assaults until last year.

In her closing address, prosecutor Tracy Tan urged the jury to consider the complainant's credibility, describing her evidence and demeanour as fair, measured and honest.

Addressing the delay in disclosure, Ms Tan told the jury that traumatic experiences could take a long time to talk about.

"We know from our own traumatic experiences it can take a long time to talk about them," she said.

Judge Amanda Burrows told the court the offending was of a serious nature and that the victim had suffered more sexual abuse than what the man was sentenced for.

"You assaulted the victim more than five or six times while she was staying at Middle Lagoon," Judge Burrows said.

"You are not being punished in relation to that conduct, but it shows this was not in isolation."

The man's sentence has been backdated to August 2026.