Teen charged with jogger’s rape ordered to see counsellor as victim blasts ‘grossly inadequate’ response

The victim of a violent rape has blasted a Magistrate’s decision to dismiss charges laid against her attacker if goes to a counselling.

A teenager accused of raping a jogger along a trail in Jacana in 2024 will have his charges dropped if he attends sessions with a court-appointed counsellor.

A teenager charged with violently raping a woman in the northern suburbs last year will have the charges against him dismissed if he attends court-ordered counselling sessions, despite his alleged victim slamming the proposal as “grossly inadequate”.

The teen, who cannot be named for legal reasons, showed little emotion as Childrens Court Magistrate Erica Contini granted his lawyer’s application for a therapeutic treatment order.

The teen was 16 when he was arrested in August last year on charges including rape, stalking, false imprisonment and assault, following the ambush attack of a female jogger at Jacana.

The teen, sitting with his parents, stared blankly ahead as the woman told the court on Friday how the “senseless, violent” rape left her shattered version of her former self.

“I feel that such a (non-custodial) remedy for his abhorrent actions would be grossly inadequate for his crimes,” the woman said.

The woman said she feared “that this person was perilously close to taking my life” until she managed to fend him off and run for help.

She said the attack “shattered my sense of self ... destroyed my wellbeing, my sense of safety in public”.

She had been forced to ban her young children from playing hide-and-seek at home, because the game “has become a trigger for my trauma”.

“I should be able to feel happy and joyful again, doing things as a family,” she said.

“I feel helpless and in constant fear, even in my own home.

“I continue to experience extreme levels of anxiety.

“Being so hypervigilant is exhausting mentally.”

The victim said discharging the charges after the teenager completes his counselling sessions “allows him to evade the accountability he deserves”.

She said there was “the need for justice to be served, not just for me but for the safety and protection of the broader community.”

A psychologist who assessed the teenager said he showed a “concerning lack of self-awareness” and “placed his needs and desires above those around him”, but that he was an “excellent candidate for rehabilitation” through counselling.

Childrens Court Magistrate Erica Contini said “simply locking a young person up is not going to solve the problem” and said counselling young sex offenders was often “the best way to protect the community”.

Ms Contini said she “heard the complainant’s views” but that ordering the teen to undergo counselling was “the best way to hold (him) accountable for his actions”.

“It’s a balancing act, there is no doubt about that,” Ms Contini said.

“If he didn’t have the supportive family he has, I don’t think we’d be here.”

The therapeutic treatment order the teenager was ordered to undertake only became available to teens older than 15 under changes introduced by the Andrews government in 2019.

The teen, who has never been required to enter a plea, served just over a fortnight behind bars after previously being found to pose a significant risk of reoffending.

He will next face court in December.