Jason Allan De Ruwe jailed for sex with 14-year-old girl, giving her cannabis

This Adelaide grandfather groomed a 14-year-old girl he met on Hindley St with weed before having sex with her – now he’s been jailed.

An Adelaide grandfather has been jailed for selling cannabis to a teenage girl on Hindley Street and having sex with her despite discovering she was 14.

Jason Allan De Ruwe, 49, was sentenced for maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child and selling a controlled drug to a child in the Adelaide District Court on Wednesday.

Jason De Ruwe was sentenced for maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child. Picture: Facebook

During sentencing submissions, the court heard De Ruwe had been approached by a teenage girl on the popular party strip, seeking to purchase some cannabis back in 2016.

The court heard the victim, who had told De Ruwe she was 17 during their first encounter, exchanged details with the grandfather.

“She looked sophisticated to him,” Con O’Neill, defence counsel for De Ruwe submitted to the court at an earlier hearing.

“He found out she was actually 14 but continued to have sex with her and continued to supply her cannabis … he should have had the sense to say no.

“She wanted cannabis and he wanted to have sex with her … there was expressed love between them … it wasn’t as if he was rough and violent with her.”

The pair stayed in regular contact since their first encounter, with the first unlawful sexual act occurred in early 2017.

De Ruwe also regularly supplied the teenage girl with cannabis throughout that time.

“The offending contained and escalated all while the accused continued to groom the complainant,” said the prosecutor.

“He purchased her lingerie as gifts and supplied her with cannabis.”

After two years, the victim had begun to pull away from De Ruwe, as she became more interested in boys her own age and had grown tired of De Ruwe’s “possessive” behaviour.

“She formed another relationship with a boy from her school, similar to her own age,” said the prosecutor.

“The accused continued to make contact with her against her wishes, to the point it prompted her to report the matter to Lifeline in around July of 2019.”

Judge Jane Schammer sentenced De Ruwe to a total of five year, eight months and 13 days imprisonment, back dated to August 3, 2023 with a non-parole period of three years.