Teen sentenced in Hervey Bay District Court for rape, sexual assault

A judge overseeing a Queensland rape case has warned "consent has to be given, not just assumed" after a 17-year-old was charged and sentenced over a drunken sleepover gone wrong. 

A teenage girl was raped at a sleepover by a 17-year-old boy.

A drunk teenager who raped a 16-year-old girl while on a sleepover where did she not consent to sex has spent five months in an adult prison.

The now 20-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty in Hervey Bay District Court on Tuesday to sexual assault and three counts of rape.

The court heard the man was 17 when he sexually assaulted and raped a 16-year-old girl during a sleepover.

The girl had reported the offending to police three days after the incident and a warrant was issued for the man’s arrest, the court was told.

But he was not taken into custody until sometime later and he had since served five months in custody in an adult prison.

The court heard the two attended the same school for a brief time until the boy moved to another school, so they were previously known to each other.

The two then attended a friend’s sleepover, with an arrangement that the girl and her friend would share a room and he would sleep in the lounge room.

The girl went to bed, and he came in and cuddled her before touching her on the bottom, the court heard.

The rapes occurred two days later as the teens continued to stay at the same home.

There were times the next day where he followed her around including into the bathroom and tried to initiate physical contact, like hugging, the court heard.

The boy was 17 when he raped the 16-year-old girl.

She rebuffed his approaches, walking away and leaving.

He later told the girl he wanted to date her and she said she wasn’t ready to date anyone as she was “too scared to tell him she didn’t want to date him”, the court was told.

Eventually he laid down on the couch, later waking up and becoming angry, asking the girl where she was going.

She said she was going to the kitchen, and he followed her there, initiating more contact with her, then following her into the bathroom.

The girl said she’d be in bed later, but he “didn’t take well to that” and said he wasn’t going to bed without her.

He returned to the couch and went to sleep, then waking about 4am he went into the bedroom where she was sleeping.

He laid down next to her and went to sleep, the court heard.

Two hours later, she woke up to him touching her.

She moved away more than once but was too scared to say stop, the court heard.

Later in the morning she woke up to him pulling on her underwear which progressed to other sexual behaviour, including kissing her neck.

After committing an obscene act, he then performed oral sex on the girl, the court was told, put his hand on her throat and applied some pressure- an act that wasn’t born out of violence but “his interpretation of the sexual acts,” the court heard.

He went on to have sex with the girl.

The court was told he had a belief the girl she may have been consenting to certain acts, but that belief wasn’t reasonable.

It also heard the incident had impacted on the girl who had ongoing trust issues and felt “worthless and used” while the boy had become addicted to opiates but had since managed to beat his drug addiction.

He had previously worked and was looking to move to Melbourne down the track for more opportunities.

Judge Deborah Richards said the then-teen had a profound lack of understanding of consent.

“The whole point of consent is that you give it,” she said.

“Intoxication is only relevant to a degree because there were no positive signs that she was consenting.

“There was nothing about what she was doing that was conveying consent in any way.”

In his head, the boy may have believed she was consenting, but there was nothing she did that indicated that, Judge Richards said.

Hervey Bay court.

Judge Richards said the boy had “followed the girl around” initially touching her, which she rebuffed.

“She was doing everything she could to avoid you, essentially, without being rude,” she said.

“She left you asleep on the couch and went to sleep in a room with a friend, but you came in and that’s when the rape proceeded over a period of some time.

“The rape involved you choking her, although it’s accepted by the Crown that was not done to hurt her, that was you perception of how these things proceeded.

“In the end she basically shouted at you to stop and told you that she wanted to sleep.

“But even then, when she went to the bathroom, you asked if she was going to have a shower and why you couldn’t have a shower together.

“What the facts paint is someone who clearly has no real idea of consent in a relationship of this kind, not that there was a relationship, consent in the spectrum of female relationships.

“I’m told that you honestly believed she was consenting and the Crown accepts that that’s the case, but it’s simply not good enough because there’s nothing really that she did that gave you that idea.

“Consent has to be given, not just assumed.”
Judge Richards said at the time of the offending he had been using “quite heavy” opiates and she was impressed he went to the effort to get off those drugs.

He was now using medicinal cannabis to help him, she said, and he had his life on a much more even keel.

Judge Richards said she considered it would be counter-productive for him to spend more time in custody.

The man was given a 12-month intensive corrections order.

In addition, he was sentenced to two years in jail, suspended after the 156 days which he had already spent in custody.

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