A football coach infected an eight-year-old girl with HIV after repeatedly raping her at a sports club, a royal commission has heard.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard the child was attacked on multiple occasions after joining Sydney Soccer Club in Australia in 1996.
The hearing was told one some occasions she was sexually assaulted while the coach's wife was in the same room.
The commission has been set up to examine how Football New South Wales responded to allegations of child sex abuse by the coach.
The man - referred to as BXK - was charged with raping the girl in 2000 but found not guilty at trial.
The coach was not banned until 2003, when fresh complaints of child sex abuse emerged.
Shortly after he was banned the girl - referred to as BXA - was diagnosed with HIV at the age of 15.
The coach was jailed for five years in 2004 after pleading guilty to a string of child sex charges.
On her first day of evidence, the Sydney Morning Herald reports woman, now 27, gave a harrowing account of the alleged abuse.
She said: "I remember crying and telling the coach it was hurting me. I remember him saying it would relax me.
"I live with a constant reminder of the abuse every single day of my life because of the HIV."
Commission counsel Gail Furness said her claim for compensation against Football NSW was rejected in 2001 but the HIV/Aids Centre is now appealing on her behalf.
The commission will also hear other claims of child sex abuse against tennis and cricket coaches in the region.
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