NSW Attorney General reviewing sentencing in schoolboy rape case

A state’s Attorney General is reviewing the sentencing in a case where a man raped fellow schoolmate at a house party.

NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman is reviewing the sentencing of a former schoolboy who could spend just two months in prison after he raped and choked a female classmate.

The man, who cannot be named or identified under state law, was sentenced to a maximum of nine months in a youth detention centre last Thursday, with a two-month non-parole period.

But he was released on bail just hours later after launching appeal proceedings.

A spokesman for Mr Speakman confirmed he would be reviewing the sentencing of the case “as soon as possible”.

“A transcript of the sentencing has been ordered and the Attorney General will be reviewing the transcript as soon as possible,” he said.

The man, who was sentenced to a maximum of nine months in jail. Picture: Channel 9.

The court heard that in 2019 the man sexually assaulted the girl, who was a classmate at a Blue Mountains high school, on a mattress at a house party.

They were both 16-years-old at the time.

The man pleaded not guilty but was found guilty of six charges of sexual assault and one count of choking without consent at trial earlier this year.

The woman’s father told NCA NewsWire the man’s sentence of potentially two months behind bars was too lenient.

“Two months in jail equals one month for each hour that he raped and choked our daughter,” he said on Friday.

“When you look at the damage he did to our daughter, the sentence is blatantly too short. The justice system is not treating rapists in the tough way that the public want them too.

“Giving him two months in jail for a two-hour rape is treating that rapist with kid gloves. How can he learn the error of his ways with such a short sentence?”

During a sentence hearing earlier this year, the victim described the man as a “monster”.

In a statement delivered through the family’s lawyer Michael Bradley outside court on Thursday, she said she did not “not recognise the person” she had become after the assault.

“His two hour attack had a massive personal impact on me, he violated me and took away my virginity,” the girl said in a statement.

“He took away my confidence, my mental health and the happy life I lived before the attack.

“I do not recognise the person I have become as a result of this attack on me. What angers me is this should not have happened.”

Magistrate Louise McManus said in her sentencing remarks that man had shown no remorse and blamed his victim during his evidence.

She also called the two-hour assault “opportunistic” and said that the girl was affected by alcohol during the incident.

“In my view the young person took advantage of (the victim) in her state and inexperience,” Ms McManus said.

“It was violating and humiliating and the actions showed little regard for her as a person.”

Ms McManus said the woman consented to some sexual acts, but not to others.

She did note the man had good prospects of rehabilitation.