A 78-year-old retirement home resident who indecently touched four girls came to the attention of police when he confessed to being sexually attracted to children, a court has heard.
Peter Graham Stenhouse was sentenced in the Brisbane District Court on Wednesday after earlier pleading guilty to 14 counts of indecent treatment of children under 12 years old.
He has previously been convicted of similar offences against eight girls.
The four recent victims were aged between three and nine when he touched them, one offence occurring in 2014 and the others in 2020.
Stenhouse met some girls through their grandmothers.
He admitted some offences and being sexually attracted to children after voluntarily attending a police station in March last year saying he wanted to be interviewed, Judge Vicki Loury said.
No complaints had been made about him at the time.
Stenhouse's criminal history includes a conviction for aggravated assault on a girl under 17 when he was 28.
In 1988 he was convicted on nine charges of indecent assault and one of indecent dealing with a girl under 14.
Those offences involved six girls aged between eight and 10, Judge Loury said.
Stenhouse was also convicted in 1992 of aggravated assault after he kissed two eight-year-old girls on the lips.
He had previously been sentenced to probation.
Judge Loury said Stenhouse preyed on four very young girls with his very serious offending involving a significant breach of trust.
"It is now well understood that childhood sexual abuse has profound and long-lasting impacts on the lives of victims in their childhood and throughout their adult lives," she added.
Judge Loury took into account Stenhouse's previous convictions for similar offences against eight pre-pubescent girls and his confession that he is sexually attracted to children.
She handed Stenhouse a head sentence of three years behind bars, ordering he be eligible for parole in March next year.
The New Zealand citizen who has lived in Australia for more than 30 years is expected to be deported after serving his jail term.
