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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Tim Piccione

Serial rapist 'maintains innocence' despite 19 guilty verdicts

A man who "maintained his innocence", despite being found guilty of raping and assaulting his partner multiple times, will spend several years behind bars.

"I'm mindful of the continuing lack of insight or failure to take responsibility for his conduct," Acting Justice Stephen Norrish said on Wednesday.

The 21-year-old offender, who is not named to protect the victim's identity, was sentenced to 13 years and five months in jail, with a non-parole period of six years and four months.

"Do you understand the effect of that sentence?" the judge asked.

"Yeah, of course," the man responded in a manner which appeared nonchalant and resembled the way he gave evidence in his 10-day ACT Supreme Court trial in May.

A jury found him guilty of 19 charges, which included nine counts of sexual intercourse without consent, four counts of choking and four counts of assault.

The judge described the offender as having had a "somewhat detached demeanour and an obvious lack of empathy towards the victim" when he took the stand to give evidence and deny all wrongdoing.

Acting Justice Norrish accepted evidence put forward by the victim about five separate days of offending in the man and woman's Greenway apartment between January and March 2022.

The pair moved in together after meeting on Tinder in mid-2021.

One incident left the victim "running for my life" from the apartment in a "petrified" state and wearing nothing but a T-shirt after he choked her against a wall and suffocated her with a pillow.

In another incident, the court heard the man tied the victim to a bed while violently whipping her with a horse riding crop before raping her multiple times.

"I could feel my skin burning," the victim told the court on the trial's second day.

The offender would use the crop, which the court characterised as a weapon, during a subsequent sexual assault.

The victim gave evidence that she verbally pleaded with her partner to stop, and physically resisted, during every assault.

Acting Justice Norrish described some of the man's behaviour as "bizarre".

The ACT Supreme Court, where the man was sentenced on Wednesday. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong

The judge referenced conduct such as instances where the offender spoke directly to the woman's genitalia, telling it the victim "wants to take you away from me".

The man told a pre-sentence report author all his offending was a result of consensual activity and attributed his partner's response to it to her "poor mental health".

The judge described the offender being unsure about of the pair's relationship status as a "totally unrealistic assessment" and agreed with a prosecutor's submission there had been a pattern of "coercive control".

On Wednesday, Acting Justice Norrish also sentenced the man for a charge of stalking and six counts of common assault related to the same victim.

The judge said the man had contacted the victim 560 times following their split through text messages, calls and even bank transfer messages.

"Baby, I promise the mean [offender's name] is gone. Just talk to me," the offender said in one message.

"I'm off the drugs. You don't need to be scared," he said in another.

Acting Justice Norrish said while no threats of violence or reprisal were made in the repeated attempts at contact, the "unwanted attention" must have "been distressing to the victim".

A psychologist reported the main factors for the man's offending were social isolation, limited pro-social connections, drug use, and previously undiagnosed mental health issues such as schizophrenia.

The offender's sentence was backdated to earlier this year when a previous non-parole period ended.

He will be eligible for release in May 2029.

  • Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; 1800-RESPECT 1800 737 732; Canberra Rape Crisis Centre 6247 2525.
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