"You had me in your sights when I was nine," the victim of a serial child abuser said on Tuesday, sitting across a courtroom from the man who irreparably changed her life.
The woman paused, pulled her hair back, and took a deep breath before reading an emotional victim impact statement as Stephen Leonard Mitchell, her perpetrator, stared back.
Those in the public gallery sat in silence, some crying, as the victim described years of sexual abuse and manipulation suffered at the hands of a man who repeatedly took advantage of his position as an ACT rock climbing coach.
"You have resisted responsibility at every turn," that victim told Mitchell and the ACT Supreme Court.
"Your plea deal to reduce charges and avoid trial was not an act of mercy."
It was the second time she shared her pain after Mitchell successfully appealed the 13-year-and-five-month jail term he received last year because Justice David Mossop used the incorrect maximum penalty for the sentence.
On Monday, as resentencing proceedings began, the judge took ownership of the "legal error".
"I understand there was lots of criticism. But I was the one who made the error," Justice Mossop said.
"It should be criticism of me."
'Unrelenting, brutal nightmare of injustice'
Mitchell previously admitted several charges of persistent sexual abuse of a child relating to three victims over more than a decade.
Justice Mossop sentenced the man last May for each offence using the modern standard of a 25-year maximum penalty.
By law, Mitchell should have been sentenced using a lesser maximum penalty in line with when the crimes were committed. His charges against three more child victims are not in issue.
On Tuesday, one victim's mother told the court her family had suffered through an "unrelenting, brutal nightmare of injustice" since the ACT's prosecuting office conceded Mitchell's appeal.
"The harms from the offender's crimes have been further magnified through a reprehensible web of procedural and legal weaknesses the offender has leveraged to his benefit, and ultimately subject us to, as a direct result of his criminal acts," she said.
Significant errors, conflicting interpretations and misrepresentations, the mother said, had not been addressed "due to broad systemic failures".
After news of the successful appeal, ACT Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury said the territory prosecuting office had made a "serious mistake" and given the victims in the case "poor advice".
While Mitchell's defence team asked the judge to give the man a lesser sentence during his latest court appearance, prosecutors argued for the same term handed down last year.
Phone call reveals 'emphatic denial'
While most evidence in Mitchell's case was heard during initial sentencing proceedings, a previously unheard phone call was played for the court on Tuesday.
"The allegations were wrong, inaccurate and unfounded. I did not do any of the bits and pieces that were there," Mitchell told one of his victims on a phone call, hours before being arrested.
Director of Public Prosecutions Victoria Engel SC asked the court to consider the "emphatic denial" when it weighed up the paedophile's remorse.
On the call, Mitchell described having set himself up to be "quite vulnerable in that space" and said he was put in a position to be targeted.
When the victim asked him how he accounted for the abuse her and others remembered, he responded: "I don't. It's like, what can I say?"
"You could say sorry," the woman said.
Mitchell, who described being "flabbergasted" by allegations, replied: "I don't see that I have anything to apologise for. There was never anything untoward that I did or that I attempted to do."
Citing an agreed statement of facts, Ms Engel said Mitchell had sexually abused one girl at least 100 times and manipulated her into thinking she loved him.
The territory's top prosecutor said the man's predatory conduct involved a "high level of grooming and manipulation" and asked Justice Mossop to reject claims he tried to shield the victims from his physical abuse.
"It strains belief he was attempting to protect them from his sexual perversion," Ms Engel said after reading out examples of overt and repeated sexual acts.
Justice Mossop reserved his decision until later in the week.
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; Canberra Rape Crisis Centre 6247 2525; Bravehearts 1800 272 831; Blue Knot Foundation 1300 657 380.
