Drunk in graveyard sex attack on niece

A MAN tried to drunkenly rape his niece in a cemetery at the tip of Australia.

The 40-year-old victim had celebrated her birthday the night before and was walking home when her uncle drove by offering her a lift.

First he took her to the beach and tried to ply her with more alcohol, but she said no.

Then he took her to a cemetery, where he told her he was going to have sex with her.

He pushed her against a fence and she fell down. He then got on top of her and tried to pull her pants down but failed. When she screamed he began choking her, but stopped after she asked for water.

She managed to get away and flag down a car, which took her to her sisters.

“It was a violent assault,” Judge Leanne Clare SC said.

“She was drunk and alone and therefore vulnerable.

“The fact that a blood relative had assaulted her ... would have been particularly distressing.”

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to attempted rape on June 10 last year at Injinoo, which is 6km west of Bamaga in the Cape York Peninsula.

“He instructs he was intoxicated at the time,” barrister James Sheridan said, adding that his client had a patchy memory of the incident.

He was convicted and jailed for three years, to be suspended after 10 months.