Appeal adds year to sentence for rape of pregnant woman

THE Court of Appeal has found a judge was too lenient on an Aborigine who raped an 8 1/2 months pregnant woman, saying he gave too much weight to the man's "tragic" background.

THE Court of Appeal has found a judge was too lenient on an Aborigine who raped an 8 1/2 months pregnant woman, saying he gave too much weight to the man's "tragic" background.

Victorian justices Marcia Neave and Robert Redlich found that the sentence County Court judge Michael Bourke gave Rodney Daryl Moore in August last year of just four years and six months was inadequate.

They said in their judgment, handed down yesterday, that Moore's sentence should not be any more lenient because he was an Aborigine and that his "deprived childhood" was given too much consideration.

Moore, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of rape and one of aggravated burglary after breaking into his victim's home in Mildura, in northern Victoria, and raping her as she slept on a mattress in her lounge room.

He shouted at his 25-year-old victim that "everyone f. . .s you" before fleeing the scene. Moore's County Court plea hearing was told that the woman was terrified and the "rape has had lasting effects on her".

The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed against the sentence -- which had a minimum term of just two years and six months -- claiming it was manifestly inadequate.

The justices wrote in their judgment that Moore was one of seven siblings who were all fostered out. They said the family had "at some stage lived along a river in tents" and his mother was a heavy drinker, who also took drugs while pregnant with Moore.

They saidMoore was born with fetal alcohol syndrome and intellectually disabled. "(He had an) unusually deprived and damaging background that . . . involved parental drug and alcohol abuse, violence, estrangement from parents and the death of many members of his family, including his father when aged 13 years," they wrote.

Justices Neave and Redlich also said Moore had a history of convictions for aggravated burglary and violent offences and the original sentencing judge had found the prospects for rehabilitation were not good.

"The respondent's impaired mental functioning could not substantially eliminate his responsibility for the offending," they said.

The justices also referred to a previous case in the Supreme Court, which stated that the same sentencing principles should be applied to every individual, regardless of race. "Thus, Aboriginal offenders are not to be sentenced more leniently than non-Aboriginal persons on account of their race," they said.

"In sentencing persons of Aboriginal descent, the court must avoid any hint of racism, paternalism or collective guilt."

They increased Moore's sentenced to five years and six months with a non-parole period of four years.