'Naive' refugee pressured child into sexually abusive bond

On Thursday, the ACT Supreme Court heard Moncrieff resident Lwen Pah Eh forced a child into a coercive sexual bond, during which he raped and indecently assaulted her numerous times.

Pah Eh, 26, previously pleaded guilty to maintaining a sexual relationship with a young person.

Since the man's crimes in 2021, the name of this charge has been changed in the ACT to "persistent sexual abuse of a child".

The offending began when Pah Eh was 23, with "light-hearted messages on Instagram", phone calls, hand-holding and kissing. It would soon escalate to forceful and painful sexual touching.

On one occasion, after being molested, the victim spoke to him about dating in Australia and the need to ask for consent.

The victim's parents told her to keep her distance from Pah Eh, but he met her in secret several times and gifted her a $200 white gold necklace, Apple Airpods and roses.

Between July and November that year, the court heard Pah Eh would pick up the victim in the early hours of the morning, rape her in the back seat of his car, and drop her home before her parents awoke.

The court heard Pah Eh took the girl to different locations around Canberra, including the Mount Ainslie lookout, and was persistent in raping her in different ways.

He ignored the child when she said no or pushed away his hands.

The victim told police she felt "powerless" and "pressured" during the assaults and would feel "worthless" and "used" afterwards.

As result of the abuse, the victim began accepting it was "not normal to ask permission to touch someone" even if it made her uncomfortable.

Police said the child asked Pah Eh twice why he had raped her the first time.

He suggested one of his friends had told him: "If you don't do it with a girl, someone else will, and if you don't stop when a girl says to, she will fall in love with you."

A year after the victim cut contact with the man and had time to "process" the abuse, she "built up the courage" to tell her parents about Pah Eh. They reported the matter to police.

On Thursday, defence barrister Richard Edney said Pah Eh's worldview had been shaped by his experiences in a refugee camp. He described the offender as "naive" and "immature".

"He effectively survived there by being under the influence of older males, and perhaps that's where he learnt the appropriateness of relationships between males and females," Mr Edney said.

He said Pah Eh, who had entered the country on a humanitarian visa, had seen 15-year-old girls get married in the camp.

"It's not an excuse, it's an explanation," Mr Edney said.

Prosecutor Lewis Etheredge said there was no evidence to suggest Pah Eh was of low intellect or maturity, and that travelling across the world, finishing school and finding work counted as "life experience".

"It's clear he did it for personal gratification in terms of his love and feeling towards the complainant and also for sexual gratification," Mr Etheredge said.

The offender had no genuine remorse towards the victim, the court heard. Rather, he focused on his own embarrassment and legal costs.

Pah Eh, who had two supporters in court, is due to return on Friday to be sentenced.