Simon Hope jailed for raping sleeping friend at Gowrie party

One of Simon David Hope's supporters sobbed in the ACT Supreme Court on Thursday morning as Justice John Burns ordered that the 26-year-old be taken into custody.

Agreed facts tendered to the court show the victim became "tipsy" at the January 2019 birthday party in Gowrie and decided to stay overnight in one of the host's spare rooms.

After she had fallen asleep alone and fully clothed, Hope got into bed with the woman and rubbed against her before proceeding to orally and digitally rape her.

The victim thought at first that she was dreaming, but she had "a vague recollection" of seeing Hope's face and recognising "the feel of his hair" while drifting in and out of sleep.

When she woke properly, she realised her clothing had been disturbed.

The woman soon received an "unusual" Snapchat message from Hope, who asked if she wanted him to order pizza.

She replied that she remembered what he had done to her, and saved his messages as he repeatedly said he was "truly sorry" and that he felt "sick to [his] stomach" about it.

A few days later, Hope tried to explain away his behaviour by saying he must have inhaled methamphetamine as another of the party attendees smoked the drug.

The victim went to police later in 2019 to report the rape.

While with detectives at the Winchester Police Centre in Belconnen that November, she phoned Hope and spoke to him in a recorded conversation that lasted 36 minutes.

Hope again said sorry to the woman a number of times for, as he described it, "doing inappropriate things to you ... while you were sleeping".

When police subsequently interviewed Hope at the Tuggeranong Police Station in March last year, he lied to investigators and denied any wrongdoing, saying he had only apologised to the victim because "he thought it was what she needed to hear".

He eventually came clean, pleading guilty in November 2020 to charges of sexual intercourse without consent and committing an act of indecency without consent.

In sentencing on Thursday, Justice Burns said these were particularly serious crimes because while the offending was "momentary and opportunistic", it must also have involved some degree of premeditation.

The judge said Hope, who had consumed up to 14 alcoholic drinks, had needed to walk to the bed, get in and disturb the victim's clothing, all the while knowing she was vulnerable because she was asleep and under the influence of alcohol.

"You were only able to commit this offence because the victim trusted you as someone she had known," Justice Burns told Hope.

"Your moral culpability with regard to your offending was high."

Justice Burns acknowledged that Hope suffered from Klinefelter syndrome, a condition that can cause delays in the development of social skills.

But he accepted prosecutor Katrina Marson's submission that this offending had nothing to do with misreading social cues or making bad decisions while under pressure.

The judge also said that beyond Hope's guilty pleas, there was not much evidence of remorse.

The court heard Hope had been assessed as suitable for an intensive correction order and his barrister, Jason Moffett, urged Justice Burns to impose one rather than a term of full-time imprisonment.

But Justice Burns sentenced Hope to 19 months behind bars, describing punishment and deterrence as the most important sentencing factors in cases like these.

The judge set a shorter than usual non-parole period of nine months, noting that the 26-year-old's Klinefelter syndrome would make time in custody particularly onerous for him.

Hope will become eligible for release in February 2022.

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