Convicted rapist Aiden Creed Kelly didn’t ‘threaten’ sleeping victim: court

Lawyers for convicted rapist Aiden Creed Kelly have aimed to have his sentence reduced, arguing he didn’t threaten his sleeping victim.

Lawyers for convicted rapist Aidan Creed Kelly have appealed to have his sentence reduced by taking into account the fact he didn’t threaten his victim, who was asleep at the time.

Mr Kelly was found guilty last year of raping a young woman who had slept in a separate room following a night out with a group of people in Crookwell NSW, on 23 November 2019.

He was convicted last year of sexual intercourse without consent and knowing the victim did not consent and was sentenced to five years and nine months imprisonment with a non-parole period of three years and nine months.

Aidan Creed Kelly was found guilty of raping a sleeping woman after a night out in Crookwell in NSW’s Southern Tablelands in 2019. Image: Facebook

In an effort to have his sentenced reduced, Mr Kelly’s lawyers asked an appeals court on Wednesday to take into consideration that he didn’t threaten or become violent with the victim in order to have sex with her.

Crown lawyers responded that the victim being asleep at the time of the offence did not make it any less humiliating or traumatic, and could in fact make it more so.

“Because the victim was asleep she was essentially just her body parts to the offender – she wasn’t a person, ” a crown prosecutor said.

In appealing his sentence, Mr Kelly’s lawyers asked the court to consider that he didn’t threaten his victim, who was asleep at the time.

During the initial trial a jury heard Mr Kelly, who was 19 at the time, had slept on the couch at a home in Crookwell while his victim slept in a separate room with another male friend.

After the other friends had left the home in the morning, the victim woke to Mr Kelly having sex with her.

The court heard she initially believed it to be the male friend with whom she had consensual sex the night before, but realised it was not when she heard Kelly say “wake up, wake up”.

The victim then pushed Kelly off her, exclaiming “what the f***”, to which the court was told he replied, “let me finish you off”.

She went to another room and texted a friend to say she’d been raped, who then called the police.

Kelly’s lawyers also pointed to his relatively young age and his potential for rehabilitation in applying for him to have a lesser sentence.

The court is yet to make a decision on the matter.