The man accused of marrying a the 12-year-old girl is being held in Villawood Detention Centre.
A LEBANESE student who married a 12-year-old girl faces a maximum jail term of 25 years after pleading guilty to persistent sexual abuse of a child.
The 26-year-old, who can’t be named to protect the girl’s identity, pleaded guilty via a video link from Villawood Detention Centre to Burwood Local Court this morning.
He originally faced 25 charges of sexual intercourse with a child after marrying the girl in a religious ceremony at her 62-year-old father’s Hunter Valley home in January.
Prosecution, however, withdrew the 25 charges today and replaced it with one count of persistent sexual abuse of a child.
The father of the girl who held the wedding in his Hunter Valley home in January.
Outside of court a crown solicitor, who declined to give her name, said the one charge encompassed the individual counts and did not “lessen” the seriousness of the offence.
It is alleged the student met the girl through her father, a Muslim convert, while attending a mosque.
The student was arrested after he tried to apply to become the girl’s legal guardian at a Centrelink office in February.
The girl’s father has been committed to stand trial for procuring a child for sex and accessory before the fact to sexual intercourse with a child.
The Muslim cleric who performed the marriage ceremony was fined $500 after pleading guilty to the offence of solemnisation of a marriage by an unauthorised person.
The girl, who is now aged 13, and her eight-year-old sister are in the care of the Department of Community Services.
The man has had his student visa revoked and is being detained in immigration detention.
The man is also on an apprehended violence order which prevents him
from contacting the girl for two years.
A date will be set for the man’s sentence in the District Court on October 17.
[dailytelegraph]
