Her daughter, who has a learning disability, was the victim of Neville John Grey, 56, of Veal Road, Warrnambool, who faced the court this week having pleaded guilty to two counts of committing an indecent act with a girl aged under 16 years and one charge of stalking.

He has been assessed for a community corrections order and will be sentenced next Friday.

Crown prosecutor Andrew Barnett said Grey and the victim were involved in racing and that between mid-December 2010 and mid-January 2011, on a trip home from a track, Grey touched the girl’s genitals over her clothes.

The court heard that another time the girl was in a shed when Grey approached her and touched her breasts through her clothing.

Grey asked her not to tell her mother or father. He also gave the girl a condom and said she would need it.

In March last year, Grey attended a sporting function where the girl was playing and later went to her home several times. He also called her mobile telephone nine times.

The incidents were reported to police on March 14 last year and Grey was arrested the following day.

During an interview with police Grey made some admissions but denied touching the girl’s genitals or breasts.

In a victim impact statement that the girl read out in court, she stated that she could no longer go to races because people looked at her like she had done something wrong. She said that before the offending she was the happiest person but now found life very difficult and her whole family had fallen apart.

The girl said she lost the close relationships she had with her mother, father and siblings.

“It’s not the same any more. I’ve lost my family and friends. I don’t feel safe in my own home. I’m very hurt by what he did,” she said.

“I get very stressed in my sleep and have nightmares. To get to sleep I cry myself to sleep.

“I feel like I’ve lost all my friends. Now people laugh at me. I hate my life because of him.”

In her own statement, the victim’s mother said she sobbed uncontrollably when she thought about what Grey had done to her family.

She said she spent sleepless nights watching her family try to sleep and they suffered nightmares every night.

The mother said Grey was a predator who took away the innocence of her children.

The victim’s father said in his statement he couldn’t understand why a man in his 50s would be attracted to a 14-year-old girl and described the situation as sick.

Under questioning from the judge, the prosecutor confirmed the charges were at the lower end of the scale, that the charges could have been dealt with in the magistrates court and the hearing may result in a non-custodial sentence.

The court also heard that Grey was a community volunteer, family man and had spent the past 41 years working at the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory.

Judge Graeme Hicks said Grey had taken full advantage of the young girl.