A man with autism spectrum disorder has been found guilty of a horrific sexual assault on a sleeping seven-year-old girl in the north-eastern Perth suburb of Ellenbrook.
Callum Ferris Davies, 28, claimed he suffered from mental impairment, but this was rejected by the judge-alone trial.
Davies was caught on CCTV climbing over a backyard fence before assaulting the helpless child, 9News reported.
It was just after midnight on December 27, 2021, when the Oakfield man broke into the home and into the little girl’s bedroom.
She woke to find her mouth ‘sticky-taped shut’ and was told to be quiet before she was ‘choked unconscious’, she told the police.
She told the officers she was not sure if what happened was ‘a nightmare or real’.
The girl woke in a different pyjama top to the one she went to bed in, and Davies turned himself in to the police days later.
Callum Ferris Davies (pictured) has been found guilty of a horrific sexual assault on a sleeping seven-year-old girl in the north-eastern Perth suburb of Ellenbrook
Davies was caught on CCTV climbing over a backyard fence (pictuerd) before assaulting the helpless child
The now 28-year-old admitted carrying out the sexual attack but said he was in a state of psychosis and not able to control himself.
He said he had been smoking cannabis and drinking before leaving his house on the night of the assault.
But after hearing all the evidence presented to the court, Judge David MacLean found him guilty of sexually penetrating a child under 13, indecent dealing with a child under 13, aggravated home burglary and two counts of impeding someone’s breathing, the ABC reported.
While the state accepted Davies had an impairment due to autism spectrum disorder, this did not ‘account for that state of depravity’.
Davies will serve his time – which will be decided at a sentencing hearing in January – in prison rather than a psychiatric facility.
Judge MacLean remanded Davies in custody until his sentencing, which the judge said would be ‘complicated’.
An updated psychiatric report on Davies has been ordered.
It was just after midnight on December 27, 2021, when the Oakfield man broke into the home and into the little girl’s bedroom
