Rapist of 13-year-old girl walks free from Toowoomba court with no conviction

A Toowoomba couple whose 13-year-old daughter suffered a horrifying sexual assault and subsequently had to change schools wants changes to the law after the teenage rapist walked free with no jail time, no conviction and his anonymity.

GENERIC IMAGE: A teenage victim of rape and her parents are calling for law reform after her rapist walked free from court with no conviction recorded.

A Toowoomba couple whose 13-year-old daughter suffered a horrifying sexual assault is calling for changes to legislation to better protect victims after the rapist walked free with no jail time and anonymity.

Because the rapist was two weeks shy of his 16th birthday and a juvenile at the time he committed the rape, he was given three years’ probation with no conviction recorded when he appeared in the Children’s Court of Queensland in Toowoomba on January 31.

The victim and her family were warned that even though the now 17-year-old had pleaded guilty to one count of rape, they could be charged if they named him and the charges against him.

District Court Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren explained that under the Youth Justice Act he could not sentence the boy to detention as long as there was another sentencing option available.

In this case probation was an option to jail, which was a sentence of last resort in the circumstances of this particular case.

The girl’s parents, who cannot be named to protect her identity, told The Chronicle of their dismay at the court proceedings and the Youth Justice Act.

“We had to take our daughter out of school because she was teased about being raped,” the girl’s mother said.

“She was ostracised by her peers.”

Their now 15-year-old daughter has been left angry and distressed at what happened to her and the subsequent court process.

She and her parents attended the court when the 17-year-old boy pleaded guilty to rape but they didn’t attend the sentence hearing which was held weeks later.

“She (their daughter) saw him plead guilty in court and then just smile at his family and then walk out the door,” the girl’s mother said.

“That was the thing that broke her.

“She thought he’d go to jail.

The teenager pleaded guilty before the Children’s Court of Queensland in Toowoomba to raping a 13-year-old girl.

“She had been so brave and so strong, she did this to protect other girls.

“Some days she can’t even get out of bed, this has affected her so much.”

The couple said while their daughter had to leave her school due to the way she was ostracised by her peers, the boy went back to his school.

At the boy’s sentence hearing, Crown prosecutor Shontelle Petrie explained that adding to the girl’s trauma was that if she was to tell others that this boy pleaded guilty to raping her or post that on social media, she would be in breach of the Act.

“The way the law is in Queensland there is no protection for the victim,” her mother said.

“She (the victim) has no voice (in this), I just want her to have a voice.”

The convicted rapist was an older friend of the teenage girl’s boyfriend and the convicted boy had met her only on social media before he met her in person at the time of the attack.

“He groomed her,” the girl’s mother claimed.

“As a parent I thought I needed to protect and educate my children about online predators who are older men, but the reality is they are older teenagers and young adults preying on naive younger girls.

“They establish trust because they are friends of friends.

“She wasn’t going to go to his place but he sent an Uber around to pick her up and told her that the Uber driver would knock on the door if she didn’t and then ‘your parents will know’.”

When police spoke with him five days after the rape, the boy denied even knowing the girl until DNA evidence proved otherwise.

The girl’s parents want state parliamentarians to modernise the Youth Justice Act and “make changes that better protect the victim’s right to privacy, instead of the Act being weighed heavily in favour of the offender, especially with indictable offences as it is currently.

“The offender’s protection is the main concern and yet our daughter and other victims have their names and reputation destroyed due to severe inadequacies within the Act, which should protect the victim entirely,” the girl’s parents said.

NEED FOR CHANGE: South Toowoomba MP David Janetzki claims the juvenile justice system in Queensland is “broken”.

Toowoomba South MP David Janetzki met with the family and shared their frustrations.

“There has been public outrage about this case and the serious impacts on the victim,” he said.

“The youth justice system is broken.

“It is time to review and reform the youth justice legislation.

“There are a range of deficiencies in the law that fail to meet the needs and expectations of the community.

“The voice of victims must be heard in any review and subsequent reform decisions.

“The state government has failed to fix the youth justice problems and the public has lost patience.”