Ian George Richardson sentenced for raping woman multiple times at Merewether

A 61-year-old pensioner who took advantage of a drunk young woman he met at a late-night kebab shop - taking her home and “plying” her with more alcohol and cannabis before repeatedly sexually assaulting her - has been jailed.

Ian George Richardson was sentenced in Newcastle District Court for multiple counts of sexual intercourse without consent. (File picture)

A disability pensioner has been jailed for a maximum of 13 years after filming himself repeatedly raping a drunk and vulnerable young woman he had met outside a suburban Newcastle late-night kebab shop.

Newcastle District Court heard on Friday that Ian George Richardson had “plied” the already intoxicated 20-year-old with more alcohol and given her cannabis joints when he had taken her back to his Merewether home in March last year.

Richardson then undressed the “highly vulnerable” woman and repeatedly raped her, including with a sex toy and a whip, while she was “no longer comprehending what was going on around her”.

The now 61-year-old listened on Friday via audiovisual link from prison to a victim impact statement, read on behalf of the woman, where she detailed the significant emotional and psychological trauma she continued to experience since the attack.

The victim said the assaults had left her “shattered”, she had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, suffered panic attacks and continued to feel isolated from family and friends.

A victim impact statement read in Newcastle District Court highlighted the extreme impact the sex attacks had on the woman. (File picture)

The court heard Richardson had met the victim outside a kebab shop at Hamilton about 1am and after the woman had been asked to leave a nearby pub because she was too drunk.

He gave her more alcohol before offering to drive her home.

Richardson raped the woman multiple times. PIcture: Istock

But Richardson then asked the woman whether she wished to return to his home in Merewether, where the woman drank wine and smoked a joint given to her by Richardson.

The pensioner then undressed the woman, took her into his bedroom and raped her.

The court heard Richardson then used a sex toy and a whip to sexually assault the woman before forcing her to give him oral sex.

Richardson took videos and photographs of some of the assaults.

The woman told her mother of the attack several days later before informing police, who arrested Richardson the following month and found videos and photographs on his phone of the assaults and of the victim while she was naked and in a semiconscious state.

In sentencing, Judge Peter McGrath said he did not find Richardson had “preyed” on the woman at the hotel and the facts did not allow him to find Richardson had an “appreciation” of her level of intoxication when they first met.

However, Judge McGrath said Richardson would have understood the woman’s “extreme state of intoxication” after she drank more alcohol and smoked the joint at the offender’s home.

“By the time he commenced these offences, she was in a highly vulnerable state by reason of her intoxication and because she was isolated alone with him at his address, an address she did not know,” Judge McGrath said.

He later added: “The victim was intoxicated, vulnerable and, to all intents and purposes, at Mr Richardson’s mercy.

“The court finds that he embarked on the offending against her in knowledge of her intoxication and, initially at least, not caring whether she was consenting or not.

“But, for the bulk of the offending, knowing that she was in no position to consent ... and with knowledge that she was actively attempting to communicate as best she could in the state of her intoxication, her lack of consent.”

Judge McGrath said Richardson had had a troubled upbringing and although he did have a criminal record, there was no similar offending in his past.

He said Richardson would find his first prison term difficult, had already been assaulted in custody and was without glasses and hearing aids after both were broken.

He sentenced Richardson to a maximum of 13 years in jail for the multiple charges of sexual intercourse without consent and one count of recording an intimate image without consent.

After finding special circumstances, Judge McGrath set a non-parole period of eight-and-a-half years.

With time already served, Richardson will be eligible for parole in 2031.