The most common age of a rapist, 14

TEENAGERS are being sentenced for rape more than anyone else in Queensland but only half are locked up for the crime, according to a report.

There were 269 children aged between 14 and 17 sentenced after being hauled before the courts for rape offences in the last 15 years, according to the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council’s Sentencing Spotlight.

Council chair and former judge John Robertson said the report which examined rape offences, offenders and trends between 2005-06 and 2020-21 found the most common age of a rapist was 14.

“In my mind I thought the age would be higher, but a lot of those people would have known their offenders,” Mr Robertson said.

The report revealed that 2222 rape cases came before Queensland courts in the last 15 years, with more than 98 per cent of those men.

Two per cent of those were repeat rapists.

More than a quarter of those offenders pleaded not guilty, and older defendants were more likely to claim innocence than younger people.

Mr Robertson said this statistic “struck” him as it was a much higher number of not guilty pleas than all criminal offences collectively (0.9 per cent).

“What that tells me is a number of things, but first of all rape and sexual offending is probably one of the most under reported offences,” he said.

“Secondly, we have these complications about the legal definition of consent.

“I didn’t do a lot of rape trials, but the ones I did, evidentially mistake of fact was run by the defence.”

The report revealed that more people were being sentenced for rape offences than ever before, skyrocketing from 79 in 2009-10, to 157 in 2020-21.