Khan Latta: Guilty of having sex with minor who he knew was 14-years-old

A Bendigo man who said he was trying to “protect” a 14-year-old girl he had sex with has learnt his fate in court.

A Bendigo man claimed he was “protecting” a 14-year-old girl after he had sex with her at a friend’s home.

Khan Latta, 23, was convicted and sentenced in the County Court to two years and five months in prison on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty the sexual assault of a child under 16 and sexual penetration of a child under 16.

The court heard Latta first met the young girl when he was 22, when she ran away from home, and continued a “relationship” with her for several months knowing she was only 14.

In 2020 the court heard the young girl ran away from home.

This is when Latta first met her and said he allowed the girl to stay with him because he wanted to “protect her” from “an older predatory man”.

The girl told Latta she was 16.

The girl was returned to her home a short time later, which is when Latta was informed the girl was in fact 14.

He was served with a personal safety intervention order and told to not go near or contact the girl again.

At a later date the girl again ran away from home and was found with Latta in an abandoned house.

The girl was once again taken home.

Several weeks later Latta returned to the town where the girl lived, booked a motel room and allowed her to stay with him for two nights.

Inspection of the girl’s phone after the stay found images of the two in bed together – many of the images displayed the young girl topless, with one showing Latta touching her breast.

While police made efforts to stop the two from connecting again they were unsuccessful and a short time after the motel stay the two went to a friend of Latta’s to stay.

Both Latta and the girl lied to the friend, telling them the girl was 18.

Latta then had sex with the girl, some months after he found out that she was only 14-years-old.

Police found the pair at the house and they jumped the back fence to escape but they were later found and arrested.

Judge Hampel said while there was an “absence of aggravating features” there were sound reasons as to why age of consent laws exist.

“This child was vulnerable,” she said.

“While she had expressed unhappiness about living at home, she had a family and a home.

“It was you who took advantage of her vulnerability.”

While she stressed the seriousness of the matter Judge Hampel also said she held great hope Latta would take advantage of the support offered to him in custody to go on to live a “better, happier life”.

Latta was sentenced to two years and five months in jail with a non-parole period of one year and five months. He was convicted and will be placed on the sex offenders register for life.