Jail for rapes at sleepover

Teenage victim ‘paralysed with fear’

A TEENAGE boy convicted of raping and indecently assaulting a girl at a sleepover has been sentenced to two and half years in prison.

The 18-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to one count of rape and was found guilty by a jury of two further rape charges and two indecent assault charges.

During sentencing in the Supreme Court in Hobart yesterday, Chief Justice Alan Blow said the five offences were carried out on the same girl in the early hours of February 17 last year.

Chief Justice Blow said the offender, then 17, and victim, 16, were part of a group of eight teenagers having a sleepover at the family home of one of the group members.

The court heard the girl fell into a deep sleep on an improvised bed — which was two couches pushed together so they were facing each other — next to a close male friend.

The offender and two others then had a bet that they could stay for five minutes in the bed that the girl and her friend were sharing.

All the boys, including the victim’s friend, eventually left the bed until the offender was the only one remaining.

Chief Justice Blow said while everyone else was asleep the offender committed a series of sexual assaults against the girl without her consent.

“The complainant had not met [the offender] before the night in question and it’s clear from her evidence that she didn’t like him,” Chief Justice Blow said.

“She was paralysed with fear and therefore didn’t make any attempt to leave the bed.”

In her victim impact statement the girl said her high school studies had been so badly impacted by the events of that night that she no longer thought she would be able to go to university or join the Australian Defence Force as she wished.

Chief Justice Blow said the offender left school during Year 10 and had been working in rendering, painting and manual labour jobs since.

“I expect a sentence of imprisonment will be a particularly dreadful one for [the offender], given he is used to living in his mother’s home and being cared for by her,” Chief Justice Blow said.

“When he committed the crime, he was an immature adolescent with no previous behavioural transgressions. It’s therefore appropriate for him to receive a sentence significantly more lenient than a judge could impose on a mature adult, even one with no significant prior convictions.”

Chief Justice Blow sentenced him to 2½ years imprisonment, backdated to June 24.

He received the “shortest possible parole period” of 15 months.