Community detention for rape of sleeping girl
A 20-year-old whose comforting of a 15-year-old girl led to a rape charge has been given a sentence of community detention with community work.
Judge Jane Farish said the victim still wanted to have contact with the man, both of whom have intellectual difficulties.
The man had had lots of interaction with various agencies while at school, and because of his difficulties while growing up with physical abuse, she said.
The pair were involved in an argument, and he went to her room to comfort her. He didn’t threaten her, but raped her while she was asleep. He realised within seconds it was a bad thing to do, stopped, and left her, Judge Farish said.
The man, who was 19 at the time of the offending, wrote a letter to the judge, who said she believed he was genuinely sorry.
She said normally prison must be imposed when young men offended against vulnerable victims with intellectual or psychiatric problems, but if he was sentenced to jail it would be unlikely he would get the treatment he needed. Also he would be vulnerable in prison because of his age, and his intellectual difficulties.
She sentenced him to six months’ community detention, two years’ intensive supervision with her monitoring his progress, and 200 hours’ community work.
He is to be assessed for a suitable rehabilitation programme, and has a curfew from 8.30pm to 6am.
“You have done a very bad thing here, and we need to make sure it is not repeated,” Judge Farish said.
Category: Focus
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