No jail for teenage rapist
Friends’ beer bet leads to assault on girl, 16
A TEEN rapist who had “little remorse” after he left a schoolgirl bleeding in a violent sexual assault will spend no time behind bars.
The now 18-year-old avoided a conviction despite a jury finding him guilty of raping the 16-year-old virgin after making a bet with friends he could bed the girl for a carton of beer.
His victim was left distressed, unable to walk and covered in blood, which was also on the sheets, mattress, bedside table and carpet, Crown Prosecutor Shannon Sutherland told the court.
Ms Sutherland said the pair attended the same school but did not know each other until that night, when they spoke before the teen, who cannot be identified, invited the girl upstairs.
Once upstairs they spent time together before he invited the girl into a bedroom.
Ms Sutherland said the boy was three months from his 18th birthday when he told the girl to take her clothes off.
The pair were seen by a witness laughing in a state of undress.
She screamed and “felt as if her insides were ripping open” as they began unprotected sex but Ms Sutherland said the girl was unsure her rapist heard her yell out.
She said at one point the man told the girl to invite her cousin to join in but that she told him to “keep going” as she “didn’t want him to hurt her cousin”.
Ultimately, a jury decided this act did not constitute rape but that everything that followed did.
Ms Sutherland said the teen anally and orally raped the girl, during which he choked her, pulled her hair and told her to “suck it”.
“She said ‘stop, it hurts’ twice – he ignored her and continued,” she said.
“(She) could not walk after and crawled toward a light, turning it on (and) noticing blood on herself.”
After he forced himself on the girl, the man “boasted” to his mates, the court was told. A forensic examination found injuries to the girl’s anus and genitals, which were “quite extensive”.
Ms Sutherland said the jury’s verdict appeared to be under the basis the girl consented to sex but withdrew her consent prior to the anal and oral rapes.
Judge Debora Richards determined the teen had an “honest and reasonable belief” the girl consented to sex but that the jury found this to be “unreasonable”.
“(He) has shown no remorse,” she said and submitted a head sentence of up to 2½ years’ detention with supervised release after serving 70 per cent was in range.
“He also struggled to show empathy … and believed he had done nothing wrong.”
Defence barrister Dane Marley accepted the facts but said the teen, a month shy of turning 19, had a limited education about sex and consent, which contributed to his offending.
Mr Marley said a psychologist determined his client posed a low risk of future sexual offending and urged Judge Richards to consider the teen’s future employment prospects and not record a conviction.
“It is not a case where there is a demonstrated need to protect the community and one where (he) is capable of … rehabilitation in a non-custodial environment,” he said,
Mr Marley said if his client was convicted it would make him a reportable sex offender
In sentencing, Judge Richards described the teen’s offending as “very serious” and said she took into account his lack of criminal history and family support.
“You can’t assume consent. Moving forward, that is something you need to work on.”
The 18-year-old was sentenced to two years’ jail, to be served by way of a threemonth conditional release order for the anal rape and two years’ probation for the oral rape.
No conviction was recorded.