An Illawarra father who laughed as his mentally disabled teenage daughter was chained up by his ex-partner's new boyfriend has admitted the pair wanted to torment the 15-year-old girl after she lashed out during a "sensory overload" episode.
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The 43-year-old man, who cannot be named in order to protect his daughter's identity, pleaded guilty to charges of assault and intimidation on Wednesday as details of the horrific and degrading incident were revealed in a set of agreed facts tendered to Wollongong Local Court.
The 15-year-old victim was living with her mother, siblings and their father in a home south of Wollongong when a loud noise on the television triggered a sensory overload episode on December 20, 2018.
The teen lashed out and started scratching her sister and her mother's new boyfriend, who was at the home that day.
This prompted the boyfriend to declare he was "going to get the chains". He returned a short time later with a long chain, which he placed around her wrist, securing it with a padlock.
The chain hold resembled handcuffs and had a long piece extending from the wrists, which could be held, police said.
The teen's father entered the lounge room, at which time his older daughter said "you better stop doing that because my mum's going to go off, its just not right".
The father told police he "played along" with what his ex's boyfriend was doing, saying he didn't want to cause trouble with him.
Meanwhile, the teen's sister shot three short videos of what was occurring.
The first showed the teen chained up, siting on the lounge, while her father and her mum's boyfriend stood in front of her, taunting her. At one stage they put a sheet or blanket over her head, then remove it.
The girl's sister can be heard saying "if you're watching this, call someone".
Her father responds "don't tape me, I'm wanted mate".
The second and third videos show the victim on the floor, still chained up.
Both men can be seen smiling and laughing in the videos, while the mum's boyfriend is overheard threatening to break the older sister's mobile phone if she keeps filming the encounter.
At one stage, the victim was heard begging to be let go.
The fact sheets said the three videos were inadvertently uploaded to an iCloud account belonging to the phone's previous owner, who spotted them in January this year and reported them to police.
The father was arrested in mid-February and charged.
When interviewed, he told police his ex's boyfriend liked to torment the victim.
"Like, knowing she's got a disability... just to provoke her a little bit," he said.
He admitted they both intended to torment his daughter with their actions, but not to physically hurt her, although did concede his behaviour was wrong.
The man remains in custody and will face sentencing on October 9.