Former Canberra junior rugby union star faces jail stint over rape of teenage girl
In emotional scenes, a young rape victim of a former junior rugby union star and her mother have confronted him in court more than two years after the drunken assault.
Canberra Star
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A young woman has confronted the former private school boy and junior rugby star who held her down and raped her in a sickening attack in a car.
The woman told the ACT Supreme Court the ordeal sent her spiralling into a mental breakdown and robbed her of what should have been some of the happiest years of her life.
The athlete still denies any wrongdoing, and is appealing guilty verdicts on two counts of rape and one of indecency.
The man, who can cannot be identified because he was 17 at the time, showed no emotion in court as his victim spoke of the ongoing effects of his crimes, more than two years on.
“I find it nearly impossible to describe the ways your actions have made me feel ove the past two and a half years,” she told the court.
“You left me in such an indescribable situation that no one should be left it ... while you were stil living a normal life being protected despite both of us knowing what you have done.”
The young woman’s mother told the court her daughter was no longer the happy, lively, caring person she used to be.
“Your pleasure was more important than her consent,” she said.
The rapist’s father also spoke and told the Supreme Court his son had quit his job after getting “intimidating” stares from people at work and that his crimes had resulted in him being sledged on the sporting field.
“(He) has received a lot of hate,” he said.
“Anyone that knows (my son) or knows of (my son) knows of the situation.
“He has been brought up well, to respect women, to be kind, caring and honest, and have a high level of integrity.”
A trial earlier this year heard the rapist and his victim were in her car when he started making drunken sexual advances on her.
When the woman said: “No, stop. Like, we’re not doing it”, the athlete said: “I can’t hear anything” and continued the sex attack.
The “nervous and scared” girl told the powerfully built athlete “no, stop, stop” as he held her down.
Afterwards he said: “What – were you being serious?” before asking her to promise not to tell their mutual friends or her parents.
The rapist’s barrister, Stephen Whybrow, asked Justice David Mossop to not register his client as a child sex offender.
His client had been threatened with violence and was assaulted in Civic following the attack, Mr Whybrow said.
A court-ordered report found the former private schoolboy to be an “average risk” of sexual reoffending.
Crown prosecutor Soraya Saikal-Skea said a stack of character references detailing the rapist’s good upbringing, integrity and ability to act respectfully towards women show his sex attack should be viewed as worse than one committed by an immature teenager.
Ms Saikal-Skea said the rapist has shown “no level of insight” and there was “no evidence of remorse, no evidence of victim empathy”.
Justice Mossop will sentence the offender on Tuesday morning.