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AAP
AAP
National
Laine Clark

Grandmother interrupts man raping girl

A 19-year-old autistic man has been jailed for raping his girlfriend while another friend looked on. (Dave Hunt/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

The grandmother of an autistic man walked in while he was raping his teenage girlfriend in front of a friend, a court has heard.

After a game of play fighting in April 2021, the then 18-year-old Queensland man asked the girl if she wanted to have sex in his bedroom despite the 17-year-old friend also being present.

He told the 17-year-old girl that he had previously had sex in front of his friend and that "it will be quick".

After knocking back repeated requests, the girl told the man to stop asking.

Instead the man tried to pull down her pants before asking his friend to hold her leg to stop her kicking and then her wrists.

The court heard the man and his friend at one stage laughed as she tried to escape the assault.

The man then raped her, only stopping when the grandmother walked in.

He told his grandmother they were just "cuddling".

The man was living with his grandmother after also being diagnosed with cerebral palsy and ADHD.

"This must break your grandmother's heart," Judge Jennifer Rosengren told the man before delivering his sentence in the District Court.

The man was jailed after hearing harrowing victim impact statements.

He kept his gaze to the ground as first the girl's father and then the equally devastated mother read their statements.

"Ever since that day since she walked into the garage and uttered the words 'Dad, can we talk' we've never been the same," the father said.

He said his "unrecognisable" daughter was now quiet, withdrawn and began to self-harm.

The girl's statement was read in court, detailing the impact of what Judge Rosengren described as an "intimidating and degrading experience".

The girl now struggled to trust people especially men, always felt vulnerable and stayed away from places that reminded her of the man and his friend.

"She says there is not a day that goes by where she does not think about what you did to her," Judge Rosengren told the man.

Defence barrister Penny White said her client had been in a consensual sexual relationship with the girl and "isn't a stranger".

But Judge Rosengren said: "I don't know whether that is worse or better quite frankly.

"He is the very person who should have protected her.

"He is her partner and he holds her down and rapes her."

The court heard the man initially denied the allegations and later told a psychiatrist "distorted events".

"You effectively attempted to lay the blame at her feet when in reality the blame rests solely with you," Judge Rosengren said.

The man, who is now 19, pleaded guilty to one count of rape (domestic violence offence) and was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison, suspended after 15 months.

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