Paedophile Dawid Volmer jailed for “terrifying and humiliating” abuse

IT began as a meeting in a local park and escalated to the drugging and raping of a young girl by the former pastor of a now-shutdown Carramar church.

A Joondalup park was last week revealed as the first point of contact between jailed paedophile Dawid Volmer (41), his young victim and her father before he sexually abused the girl in a manner District Court Judge Mark Herron described as humiliating and terrifying.

Volmer, who is married with two children, was sentenced on Thursday to 10-and-a-half years in jail after pleading guilty to 12 offences committed between 2014 and earlier this year

Seven other men are facing court, including Wanneroo resident Nicholas Adam Beer, on charges of abusing the girl, now 13, whose father allegedly facilitated the offences.

Volmer, a former pastor at ACTS Christian Church in Carramar, is the first to have his case completed.

Prosecutor Robert Wilson described the first meeting in Joondalup in early 2014.

The father had responded to an ad the offender posted on classifieds website Craigslist offering massages, saying his daughter was interested.

In an interview, Volmer told police the girl’s father insisted she was 16, but he suspected she was 13 or 14 based on her appearance.

Several days later, they met at a city hotel where the girl, aged 12 at the time, was chastised by her father for crying when Volmer stripped naked and lay on top of her naked body.

Judge Herron said the girl’s cries indicated Volmer “clearly knew” what he was doing was distressing her.

“I have no doubt that to a 12-year-old girl, forced by her father to lie naked on her stomach while a 40-year-old naked man rubbed his naked body… against her, was a frightening and distressing experience,” he said.

The Banksia Grove resident also touched the girl’s genitals in the process of giving her a massage.

This was the first occasion he encouraged the victim to sniff amyl nitrate, which he also used himself to enhance sexual pleasure.

The victim said it made her feel woozy and lightheaded for a short period of time.

Mr Wilson went on to say Volmer contacted the father about a year later.

The pair planned for Volmer to send text messages threatening the father, which they would show the girl to lead her to believe her parent would be in trouble if she did not comply with Volmer’s demands for sex.

Volmer also sent a video of oral sex to the father, saying this was what he wanted the girl to do to him.

They arranged for the father and girl to be blindfolded in the master bedroom, with Volmer entering their northern suburbs home through an unlocked door.

There, Volmer forced the girl to give him oral sex while her father sat in the corner blindfolded, which Judge Herron said “must have been a distressing, degrading and humiliating experience for her”.

At a later date, in similar circumstances with the girl blind folded, Volmer raped her.

On each occasion, he encouraged her to sniff amyl nitrate.

Judge Herron described Volmer’s actions as depraved and entirely for his own sexual gratification.

“The young girl, being blindfolded and not being able to see what was happening, must have added to the terrifying and humiliating nature of the ordeal,” he said.

Mr Wilson told the court that after this final act of abuse, Volmer told the father they should hand themselves in but the father said “he was making a fuss about nothing and that he would be making a big mistake because the victim was over 16 anyway”.

Volmer’s lawyer Nick Scerri believed his client’s remorse was genuine.

He urged consideration to be taken of Volmer’s safety in prison given he could give evidence in future prosecutions of the case.

“The public interest is keeping Mr Volmer safe until the possibility of a trial has been eliminated in relation to the other accused,” he said.

“So I would think in one sense he’s the golden goose in that regard for the State.”

Judge Herron questioned why further consideration for his safety was needed given he would already be placed in isolation as a sex offender.

But Mr Scerri said there was still a risk in that environment.

Volmer will be eligible for parole eight-and-a-half years into his 10-and-a-half year sentence.

Judge Herron said he had reduced Volmer’s sentence down from 12 years and six months because he had agreed to give evidence in any future trial against the father or other people.

He said the bigger term would be introduced should Volmer not honour that agreement.