'Predatory' publican Joshua Leemhuis treated partners with contempt, ACT Supreme Court told

Crown prosecutor Trent Hickey on Wednesday said former George Harcourt Inn boss Joshua Leemhuis, 36, had repeatedly subjected his victims to "humiliation, contempt, disrespect [and] degradation".

He said the 22 charges to which Leemhuis earlier this year pleaded guilty related to two victims, both of whom were former partners.

Mr Hickey said these offences, including four of sexual intercourse without consent, were committed in 18 different incidents at times Leemhuis was in relationships with the victims.

The ACT Supreme Court has previously heard Leemhuis sexually assaulted one of the women as she lay unconscious on a number of occasions about a decade ago.

He filmed these despicable acts in what proved to be his downfall, with that victim's mother discovering the videos on an old camera memory card last year.

Police who were alerted to the footage subsequently found Leemhuis had also uploaded intimate images of a more recent sexual partner to a pornography website.

Mr Hickey said Leemhuis' crimes seemed "thought-out and deliberate".

"This wasn't one-off offending," he told the court as Leemhuis fronted a sentence hearing on Wednesday.

"This was predatory behaviour."

Mr Hickey said the videos Leemhuis took of his crimes showed the man performing stunts, like winking at the camera, that indicated he was "filming for an audience".

The simplest and most likely explanation, the prosecutor said, was that Leemhuis had a sexual paraphilia "he couldn't keep hold of".

"It may be opportunistic to do it once or twice," Mr Hickey told the court.

"To [offend] repeatedly, on the number of occasions he did, tends against that."

Leemhuis' barrister, Felicity Graham, had earlier urged Justice John Burns to find her client's offending was "opportunistic" and carried out under "the disinhibiting effects of alcohol".

"These offences, against both victims, can be properly characterised as non-premeditated," she said.

Ms Graham said Leemhuis' moral culpability for the offending was reduced by a number of factors including his alcoholism and traumatic childhood experiences that were said to have led to his excessive drinking.

She told the court Leemhuis had demonstrated remorse and insight into his conduct, and had been "a model prisoner" since being remanded in custody more than a year ago.

Ms Graham said the 36-year-old held "trusted positions" in the Alexander Maconochie Centre, for which he was writing a cookbook.

Leemhuis had also begun university studies with great success, according to Ms Graham, who argued the treatment he needed to further his good progress could "only happen in a meaningful way in the community".

She therefore urged the judge to set a non-parole period with a lower than normal ratio to the total sentence.

Justice Burns said he needed some time to consider things and would sentence Leemhuis at a later date.

Leemhuis' victims have previously given media consent to name the rapist even though some people will be able to work out their identities.

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