A man groomed his step grandchildren by playing a sexually inappropriate game with toys while other family members were present in the home.
In an ACT Supreme Court decision published earlier this week, the now 79-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was described as showing no remorse.
Acting Justice Peter Berman handed him a one-year-and-six-month intensive correction order, meaning he will serve his sentence in the community.
After a jury trial earlier this year, the man was found guilty of two counts of grooming and committing an act of indecency in the presence of a child.
When the victims' mother was a child, the man exposed his genitals to her multiple times until she called him a paedophile and punched him. He was not charged for this but the court took it into account as context.
Years later, the victims' mother and her husband allowed their two daughters to stay with the man and their grandmother.
The parents believed any risk would be reduced by the presence of the grandmother and an uncle.
Justice Berman said that "sadly, and as expert evidence in the trial suggested was often the case, the presence of other adults in the household did not prevent the offender from committing four serious offences involving his two step granddaughters".
One evening when the girls were aged eight and 10, the man entered a bedroom they shared and picked up a banana toy, calling it a "doodle" or "dick".
He started playing with the banana and making inappropriate sexual comments before picking up a snake toy and simulating sex while saying words to the effect of "I know you want this".
The judge said the man then started playing "a macabre version of 'this little piggy'" on the girls' toes.
In this version the piggies were shot, died, or suffocated.
After he eventually left the room, the children saw him masturbating in his bedroom and he told them to "come here".
The children were scared and went back to their bedroom. The following day when their father picked them up they immediately told him what occurred. It was later reported to police.
Justice Berman found the crimes were "a significant breach of trust" that the victims, their parents and his wife had in him.
"Everyone concerned was entitled to expect that the offender would care and protect the complainants and not use them for his own sexual gratification," he said.
The judge said the 79-year-old had no remorse and there was little evidence to show that the man recognised the wrongfulness of his actions or the harm he caused.
As a result, the court was significantly concerned about his attitude to future similar behaviour.
"Sentences imposed on those who mistreat children in a sexual way must mark in a very concrete way just how wrong such conduct is," Justice Berman said.
While the prosecution had pushed for full-time imprisonment, the judge found the man should receive a community sentence.
This was because the crimes did not involve physically touching the children and the man's age meant his time in custody would be much harder.
