A “predator” placed a 12-year-old girl in handcuffs, locked her in a cage and sexually abused her.
Henry Anthony Sergi, from Adelaide, was on Thursday jailed for more than 15 years after pleading guilty to producing child exploitation material and maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child, The Advertiser reported.
Adelaide’s District Court heard how Sergi, 63, started abusing the girl when she was just 12 years old.
When police raided his home, they found a sick stockpile of abuse pictures and videos on USBs, CDs and hard drives, including 390 images of the child.
Some of the pictures showed the young girl undressed and being abused, with some showing her handcuffed to the top of the cage, Judge Michael Burnett said.
He had hundreds of images and an video of another child being abused.
But Sergi blamed the young girl for his offending, the court heard.
“This offending was predatory, planned and ongoing,” the prosecution said.
“When the defendant was arrested he was certainly cooperative with police but he was seeking to deflect his involvement in what we say is horrendous offending and he was laying the blame on the (victim).
“He was saying that she instigated many of these things and that he did things at her request. She was a child.”
Sergi was jailed for 15 years, four months and seven days.
He will be eligible for parole in 2035.
