Man jailed for three years and nine months for filming the abuse of his drugged girlfriend

A man who drugged his girlfriend, knocking her unconscious for more than 12 hours before he filmed himself abusing her, has been jailed.

A man who drugged his girlfriend before filming himself sexually abusing her has been jailed.

The man in his 20s was charged with two counts of rape over the abuse which he filmed on the victim’s phone.

During sentencing Judge Liesl Kudelka stated that the couple were living in a converted shed in the southern suburbs in April 2018.

The pair had been smoking methamphetamine and cannabis during the day.

Around 8pm, the man placed a capsule in the victim’s mouth, telling her it was “MD”.

The victim thought it was MDMA and took another tablet from him after the pair had consensual sex.

The last thing the victim remembered was lying on the couch watching a movie at 11.30pm.

She woke the next day at 4pm, more than 17 hours after passing out.

She woke with a pain in her groin and told her boyfriend she was in pain.

He told her they had consensual “rough” sex several times overnight – which she did not recall.

Several days later, following an argument between the couple, the victim found videos in the deleted folder on her phone.

The first, filmed at 7.03am showed the boyfriend smoking cannabis.

The videos after that showed him sexually abusing the victim, including hitting her in the face with the mobile phone.

The victim did not react after being hit.

She confronted her boyfriend who insisted the sex had been consensual and she was aware of what was happening.

They broke up the next day and in May that year she went to police.

The man was charged with multiple counts of rape and initially pleaded not guilty. He changed his plea on the day his trial was scheduled to start.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, the young victim said that the man had been her “first love” and the abuse had left her broken.

“What you did to the victim was a terrible breach of trust,” Judge Kudelka said.

“It is disturbing when such a young man commits such crimes in a relationship.

“The only explanation that you can put forward is your drug use at the time.

“What that does in my mind is confirm that illicit drugs wreak havoc in our community.”

Judge Kudelka said that the sentence she imposed needed to send a message to young men in particular that such crimes would place land them behind bars.

“Under no circumstances is it OK to perform sexual acts on a partner while that partner is asleep or unconscious,” she said.

“Young men need to understand that that behaviour is criminal and is so serious that they will spend time in jail despite their youth.”

The man was sentenced to three years, nine months and 19 days in prison with a non-parole period of 23 months.

He will be eligible for parole in December 2023.