Taxi driver's victim tells court abuse left her a 'hollowed out shell'
Years of childhood sexual and physical abuse and drugging left a girl a "hollowed out shell", a court has been told.
During a case against her perpetrator, the young woman provided a shocking summary of her emotions.
Former taxi driver Peter Coomer, 42, pleaded guilty to multiple charges of sexually penetrating a child under 16, indecent acts with a child, giving a drug of dependence to a child and assaults between 2001 and 2007.
"I felt like a hollowed out shell of a girl," the victim told the County Court on Wednesday.
After experiencing sexualised behaviour from Coomer, she was aged 14 or 15 when he had sex with her in a public bathroom near a beach.
"I wanted my first time to be rose petals and candlelight but instead it was cold concrete and the smell of urine," she said.
Coomer made her feel completely isolated from the world and the abuse had left scars on her mind, body and soul, she added.
"I felt like the world had forgotten me."
Over several years she was subject to physical as well as sexual abuse.
In one instance the man threw a fan heater at her which smashed her front two teeth.
"Surviving doesn't mean it's over," she told the court.
A lawyer for Coomer said he had a "genuine affection for the victim" but had made "a number of grave mistakes that words cannot describe", while citing mental health issues during the offending period.
Judge Meryl Sexton said the victim's statement was one of the most "eloquent" descriptions of this kind of abuse she had heard and thanked the woman.
"Your rights do matter. Your story does matter," the judge told the victim.
Coomer, who has no prior criminal record, was remanded in custody to be sentenced at a later date.
AAP
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