Radio Brisvaani
THE man who kidnapped a seven-year-old girl from a north Brisbane shopping centre before sexually assaulting her in bushland has pleaded guilty to the indecent act.
Sterling Free, 26, today confessed to luring the girl from her mother at Kmart, Westfield North Lakes, before taking her to bushland and sexually assaulting her, shortly before Christmas last year.
He returned her to the shopping centre about an hour later.
The Morayfield father of twins today pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court to deprivation of liberty, taking a child for immoral purposes and indecent treatment of a child under 12 years.
Free, who works as an insulation installer, took the girl from her mother on December 8, 2018.
The charges came after Free found the child in the toy aisle while he was Christmas shopping and told her: “Follow me”.
He then drove her in the passenger seat of his car to bushland near Pumicestone Passage where she was sexually assaulted.
After the assault, the girl was driven back to North Lakes and left at a carwash near the shopping centre.
The offending was uncovered when mother of child later saw a scratch on her back after they returned home.
The case previously garnered widespread publicity after Magistrate Trevor Morgan forced the public and media to leave the courtroom for Free’s first appearance in the Magistrates Court.
He cited an archaic law that gives the judiciary permission to close the court on the grounds of “public morality”.
He also issued an order preventing the media from reporting on some aspects of the proceedings, despite objections from The Courier-Mail.
The order did not carry over to the District Court hearing held this morning, meaning there is now no additional restrictions on publication.
Outside court, Free’s lawyer, Shaune Irving, said Free had given detailed instructions that he wanted to “resolve the matter and deal with the matter before the courts”.
“And obviously have his punishment delivered and he wants to do that as quickly as possible,” he said.
