Girl begs to be with sex molester

[Tux of Borg]

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/stor...5007132,00.html

 

Girl begs to be with sex molester

 

A 16-YEAR-OLD girl yesterday won a court order allowing her to reunite with a former netball coach convicted of sexually assaulting her when she was just 14.

 

In what is believed a NSW legal first, the girl won an appeal against an apprehended violence order – despite her family's wishes – to see the man.

 

Magistrate Alan Railton's order in Wyong Local Court effectively means, as long as 39-year-old Graham Andrew Mulholland is nice to the teenager, he can resume contact with her.

 

It is understood the girl's mother is furious at the decision.

 

Prosecutor Sergeant Simon Young opposed the application, saying she was "of the age where she can be easily led".

 

The decision also sparked outrage among children's rights advocates who warned it set a dangerous precedent.

 

Mulholland (pictured leaving court with the girl yesterday) was convicted in October 2005 of indecent aggravated assault against the girl and assault occasioning actual bodily harm against former wife Kim.

 

Mulholland, of San Remo on the state's Central Coast, was originally charged only with breaching an AVO taken out by the girl's family amid fears the pair were engaging in a sexual relationship after intimate text messages were found.

 

The charge was upgraded to indecent aggravated assault after video footage was seized by police showing Mulholland and the then 14-year-old girl, who he called "Angel", engaged in sexual activity in a car parked on a remote road.

 

Mulholland is estranged from his wife after he assaulted her when he overheard a telephone conversation between her and the girl's mother on July 9, 2005.

 

He slapped his wife several times in the face and threatened to kill her before leaving and picking up the young girl and fleeing the Central Coast to Mudgee, where they shared a double bed for two nights.

 

Mulholland pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 20 months in jail, but appealed against the severity of the sentence.

 

Judge Colin O'Connor reduced the jail sentence to a suspended sentence in Gosford District Court in December 2005 after finding special circumstances warranted the reduction.

 

The AVO that the girl sought to revoke in Wyong Local Court yesterday stated Mulholland was not to approach or contact the girl in any way, and was not to assault, harass, intimidate or threaten her or any person related to her.

 

The girl's solicitor Roland Day told Wyong Local Court yesterday the girl was mature enough to make up her own mind about the relationship.

 

He then asked for the matter to be dealt with under the Children's Court jurisdiction.

 

"So she wants to be an adult on one hand and doesn't want to be on the other," Mr Railton asked Mr Day following his application to move the matter to the Children's Court.

 

When Mr Day argued the girl had only been 14 at the time of the offences and should be dealt with under children's law, Mr Railton granted his application.

 

Court papers said the AVO was modified to permit Mulholland and the girl to contact one another. However it still contained the conditions that Mulholland must not intimidate, molest, assault, stalk, or otherwise interfere with the girl or any of her relatives.

 

The girl's mother, who has been estranged from her daughter for some time, said while she was angered by Mr Railton's decision, she hoped to rebuild their relationship.