Child rapist befriended autistic boy living in same Launceston supported housing complex

A child rapist who repeatedly abused an intellectually disabled boy living in the same complex as him will spend up to six years in prison.

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A CHILD rapist who repeatedly abused an intellectually disabled boy living in the same supported housing complex as him in Northern Tasmania will spend up to six years in prison.

The 52-year-old disability pensioner pleaded guilty to a charge of persistent sexual abuse of a child in the Supreme Court in Launceston on Monday.

The court heard he befriended the autistic boy who was aged 13 at the time and raped him at least 12 times as well as other indecent and sexual assaults.

Justice Pearce said the sex acts the man performed were less invasive than some other forms of rape.

The boy’s mother said in a victim impact statement that her son had an intellectual age of seven or eight years old and exhibited no sexual behaviour before the abuse.

She said he now exhibited a range of inappropriate and public sexual behaviours, had aggressive outbursts, his sleep pattern had changed and his hygiene had deteriorated.

Justice Robert Pearce said the man had a criminal history of sexual offending and is medicated for chronic paranoid schizophrenia which may result in delusions.

It was an aggravating factor that the victim had an intellectual disability, the court heard.

The court heard the man told police he was “ashamed and embarrassed because he knew what he was doing was wrong” and stopped when a support worker told him what he was doing was a crime and he “might go to jail”.

He told them he thought the boy was his friend and he loved him like a friend.

Justice Pearce convicted the man and sentenced him to prison for six years with a non parole period of four years.