Jealous man jailed over abusive ‘relationship’ with teenage girl

A Tasmanian man may soon be eligible for parole after being jailed over a sexual ‘relationship’ with a teenage girl that turned emotionally and physically abusive.

A Tasmanian man was jailed for sex with a young person under 17, emotional abuse or intimidation, assault and supplying a controlled drug to a child.

A “JEALOUS, possessive and violent” Tasmanian in his 40s has been jailed for sex crimes against a girl starting when she was 14.

The Supreme Court heard on Wednesday the pair started off like stepfather and stepdaughter but it turned into a “sexual relationship” with about 30 instances of intercourse. The man was abusive over a 13-to-14-month period, assaulting the girl, monitoring her phone calls, threatening to kill himself, and supplying her with the drug ice.

They met when the girl, a “vulnerable teenager” receiving assistance from case workers, was living with her grandma and the 42-year-old lived nearby, buying her cigarettes, alcohol and phone credit.

The man has pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual intercourse with a young person under 17, supplying a controlled drug to a child, emotional abuse or intimidation and assault.

“[He] has only been charged in relation to two acts of sexual intercourse,” Chief Justice Alan Blow said. “I will be sentencing him for those acts only … however I will be sentencing him on the basis that those two acts were not isolated.”

The judge said the girl initially had a boyfriend, but they split up and the man’s behaviour “became worse”, with case workers seeing puncture marks on her arm after he’d given her ice.

Chief Justice Blow said the pair had sex for the last time in a tent when she was 16 and he was 43 before they started arguing. In that argument, the man assaulted the girl after she pushed and scratched him and grabbed him by the throat, retaliating by grabbing her arm and shoving her in the bushes.

Chief Justice Blow sentenced the man to two years and six months in jail as of December 2018. He will be eligible for parole after serving one year and three months, with his name placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.