ACT Supreme Court sentences teenager to suspended jail term for Gungahlin rape

The 19-year-old man, who cannot be named, avoided time behind bars when he was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court earlier this month.

He had previously previously pleaded guilty to a charge of sexual intercourse without consent, following an incident that occurred when he was underage.

Sentencing remarks, published on Tuesday, show Acting Justice Stephen Norrish gave the offender a suspended jail term of two years and seven months, with a three-year good behaviour order.

The judge said the teenager and his former girlfriend, who both had "most unfortunate" backgrounds, had been in a relatively short relationship in 2019.

In February 2020, the offender sent the victim self-harm videos and threatened to continue hurting himself unless she yielded to his requests to meet up.

The pair ended up meeting at the Gungahlin bus interchange and walking through the town centre to a nearby recycling centre.

In "a secluded area" there, surrounded by shrubbery and large commercial bins, the offender grabbed the victim by the throat and pinned her against a brick wall.

MORE COURT AND CRIME NEWS

Acting Justice Norrish said the teenager had then pushed the victim to ground and raped her.

The victim eventually managed to get up and run to a service station, where she asked for police to be contacted.

Acting Justice Norrish said investigators interviewed the offender the following month.

"He gave a completely preposterous account of himself, claiming that he suffered from what ... 'multiple personality disorders'," the judge said.

"He has obviously watched too many films based on fiction."

Acting Justice Norrish said the teenager had tried to "move the blame of his own conduct to some fictional character that he thought, or said, was a manifestation of his personality".

The judge was also "disturbed" by the offender's interactions with a community corrections officer, saying these revealed a lack of respect for the victim and women in general.

"[The offender] also claimed that he was thinking of using explosives to blow up the courtroom to kill both himself and the victim of the offence," Acting Justice Norrish said.

"He showed, in his oral statements, disregard for the consequences of his actions."

Acting Justice Norrish ultimately attributed much of the "self-absorbed" offender's behaviour to "grandiose acting out", describing the teenager's childhood as "a miserable existence".

While prosecutors urged the judge to impose a sentence of full-time imprisonment, he found such a penalty would be "destructive of [the offender]".

"Notwithstanding his bravado, I can see a person such as him being very badly damaged in custody, to the point where, in my view, it would make him a greater danger to the community on his release," Acting Justice Norrish said.

The judge warned the offender, however, that "even slightly different" circumstances would have resulted in time behind bars.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: