Judge warns of high risk of reoffending as rapist jailed for eight years

A JUDGE has warned of a man’s “high risk of future sexual violence” as he sentenced the man to jail for the rape of a 76-year-old woman.

Christo Brown, seen here after his extradition from Melbourne, has been sentenced to eight years in jail.

A LAUNCESTON man who raped a 76-year-old woman in 2015 has been sent to jail.

Christo Brown, now 21, was found guilty by a jury in July.

Justice Robert Pearce told the Supreme Court in Launceston that the Sudanese-born Brown had shown no remorse for a crime that had a dramatic impact on the victim.

He said a forensic psychiatrist’s report found that there was a high risk of reoffending.

He said Brown would have to be carefully monitored in prison to ensure he engaged with programs aimed at rehabilitation under the guidance of a “suitably skilled practitioner”.

Justice Pearce set a non-parole period of four years but backdated the sentence to October 2017 when he was taken into custody.

He said Brown was manipulative, intelligent and anti-social.

“There is a high risk of future sexual violence,” Justice Pearce said, quoting from a pre-sentence report.

The court heard that Brown served 277 days jail in Queensland after being found guilty of sexual assault while on bail for the Tasmanian matter.

Brown also was found guilty of aggravated burglary of the Launceston woman’s home and demanding property ($250 in cash) with menaces.

Justice Pearce said the rape had caused the woman great pain.

He ordered that Brown be placed on the sex offenders register for eight years.

During the trial the jury heard that Brown, who was 18 at the time of the offence, had been drinking on the night.

He broke into the house about 1.40am on July 29, 2015 and raped the woman who had been asleep in bed.

Afterwards she prayed for the rapist and gave him a religious pamphlet titled Our Daily Bread.

Brown flew to Melbourne within hours but was apprehended and extradited on August 4.

Forensic scientists detected Brown’s DNA on the woman’s nightie.

During the case the Crown called as a witness a British woman who Brown sexually assaulted.

She told the jury she had been staying at a Brisbane backpackers hostel in 2016 where she met Brown early one evening.

She woke about 3am to find him in her bed stroking her thigh and attempting to remove her underwear.

In his summing up, Justice Pearce said: “The Crown says this is evidence of a state of mind and a tendency to impose himself on females when they are asleep in bed.”