‘You told her she was cute’: Man guilty of penetrative sexual abuse avoids jail

GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: A man has avoided jail for penetrative sexual abuse after he got a 16-year-old girl drunk on whisky and ignored her attempts to push him away.

A man has avoided jail for penetrative sexual abuse after he got a 16-year-old girl drunk on whisky and ignored her attempts to push him away.

The man had bought her and her friends alcohol knowing they were underage.

Aranea Dawn Sykes Natale appeared in the Supreme Court of Tasmania before Justice Gregory Geason last Wednesday after pleading guilty to two counts of penetrative sexual abuse of a young person and one count of indecent dealing with a young person.

Justice Geason said the girl and her friends gave Natale money early last year to buy them drinks.

Supreme Court of Tasmania, Hobart. Picture: Richard Jupe, NCA NewsWire.

The group had their drinks in a public park. Natale sat next to the girl.

“Despite her indicating that your advances were not welcome, you told her she was cute,” Justice Geason said.

“You began touching her on the shoulder and on her upper thigh.

“When you attempted to touch her near her vagina, on the outside of her clothing, she pushed your hand away.

“Her next recollection is lying on the grass, you on top of her, trying to kiss her.

“She told you she wanted to go home, and you said you would take her.”

But Natale stopped on the way to buy more alcohol, opening the girl’s drink for her.

“Once inside the house, she recalls being sick, and then being in your bedroom where she collapsed on your bed,” Justice Geason said.

Natale put his mouth on her genitalia, before putting his genitalia inside her mouth, inserting a finger inside her and proceeding to have sex with her.

She tried to push him away.

“You ejaculated into your hands and you wiped some of it onto her face,” Justice Geason said.

After the girl reported the incident to police, Natale told police he had thought she was 17.

“You said the complainant was conscious and willing, and that she was affected by alcohol, but not so drunk as to require assistance to walk,” Justice Geason said.

Generic image of gavel.

Natale’s psychiatric report showed he had drunk high volumes of alcohol since he was 14.

Because the victim was three months away from the age of consent, the psychiatric report found no suggestion Natale had a sexual interest in children.

The justice said Natale’s early plea lessened his sentence, and described the “unusual” case as “a grave error of judgment by someone who has not previously transgressed in this way”.

He sentenced Natale to six months imprisonment, suspending the entire sentence for three years, and made a 12 month community supervision order requiring Natale to attend an addiction program.

Justice Geason did not place Natale’s name on the offender register.

Originally published as ‘You told her she was cute’: Man guilty of penetrative sexual abuse avoids jail