Young man, 21, faces District Court after maintaining sexual relationship with child, producing child exploitation material

No one ever told a young man from Adelaide’s inner-north it’s “not normal” to have an ongoing sexual relationship with an underage girl, a court has heard.

A young man in an ongoing sexual relationship with an underage girl has had his autism diagnosis questioned in court, with a judge in disbelief at the “sheer volume” of his sexual activity.

The man, 21, from Adelaide’s inner-northern suburbs, appeared in the Adelaide District Court on Monday in front of Judge Paul Muscat for sentencing submissions after pleading guilty to three counts of maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child, 12 counts of producing child exploitation material, two counts of possessing child exploitation material and another two counts of knowingly be in possession of child exploitation material.

He cannot be named to avoid identifying his victim.

James Marcus, for the defendant, told the court his client had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and had been assessed as being “not inherently sexually attracted to children”.

However, Judge Muscat questioned those submissions – telling Mr Marcus he “still could not understand” how a person with that diagnosis could engage in “so much” consensual sex.

“I’ve never seen somebody with that disorder engage in so much consensual, sexual activity,” Judge Muscat said. “It tells against him having autism spectrum disorder.

“Most of those people (ASDs) don’t know how to interact with others – yet he has no difficulty doing that.

“I still couldn’t believe what he has said about how many sexual encounters he has had from a very early age. I’m finding all of this quite difficult to comprehend because of the sheer volume of sexual activity that he engaged in – most autistic offenders do not engage in contact sexual activity.”

The man was remanded in custody on November 24, 2022 at the age of 19 and has been in custody on remand ever since.

Mr Marcus acknowledged the matter before the court was “extreme”, but told Judge Muscat that at the time of the offending, his client “had a very warped, abnormal psychosexual development”.

“To him, that was normal – or at least no adult in the room ever said ‘this is not normal, you need to stop doing it’,” Mr Marcus said.

“(My client) has been in jail longer than he’s been an adult and, in six days time, he would have been in custody for two years.

“He’s a very young person with a very complicated, nuanced background that led to the offending who has never received any treatment.”

The man will appear in court later this year for sentencing.

Originally published as Young man, 21, faces District Court after maintaining sexual relationship with child, producing child exploitation material