A Canberra man convicted of violently attacking his girlfriend, including hitting her with a horse-riding crop on two separate occasions, has been sentenced to more than 13 years in prison.
WARNING: This story contains details of assault.
Key points:
- The court heard the seriousness of the offending escalated over time, with the crimes often aimed at humiliating the victim
- The woman later fled interstate, contacting police, and the man was found guilty of 19 charges including rape
- He will be eligible for parole in 2029
The 21-year-old, who cannot be named to protect his victim’s identity, met the woman on Tinder in July 2021.
They began living together at his apartment in Greenway in Canberra’s south, where the offences occurred on five separate occasions between January and March 2022.
During the first incident, the woman was smothered with a pillow and slammed into a wall and then a bed, and was so disturbed she fled the apartment undressed from the waist down.
A witness helped her by calling triple-0.
The court heard the seriousness of the offending escalated over time, with the crimes often aimed at humiliating the victim.
On two occasions, the court heard the man used a horse-riding crop to whip her.
At one point, the man told the woman to “relax and enjoy it”.
Another time, after a violent sexual assault, the man pulled the woman by the hair to the bathroom and made her look in the mirror, at which point he told her she was “disgusting” and forced her to shower.
The victim later sought help from police and fled to live with her mother in New South Wales.
Victim forced to endure ‘sexual indignities’
After a two-week trial in April, the jury found the man guilty of 19 charges, including raping the woman several times, and choking and assaulting her with intent to rape her.
On Wednesday, while appearing in the ACT Supreme Court via video-link, he also pleaded guilty to a further charge of stalking.
It was revealed he had attempted to contact the victim 560 times after she fled to New South Wales, including on social media, via phone calls, and transfers of small amounts of money accompanied with messages like “I love you baby” and “mean [offender’s name] is gone.”
Acting Justice Stephen Norrish also found the man guilty of six associated assault charges, which he acknowledged came from acts that were “forceful and painful” for the victim.
Acting Justice Norrish said one of the more serious offences involved a “softening up” of the victim, to enable the man to commit “further sexual indignities”.
The court heard the man was motivated by personal and sexual gratification and dominance.
Acting Justice Norrish said the man had a detached demeanour and an obvious lack of empathy for the victim.
“I am mindful of the continuing lack of insight or failure to take responsibility,” he told the court.
But Acting Justice Norrish also claimed the woman had “ample opportunities to leave” given she had her own car.
“It is difficult to understand why they reconciled,” he told the court.
The court heard the couple had few friends and did not often leave their apartment or socialise with others, but that he was studying online to be an engineer.
After the offences against his girlfriend, the man was also convicted of choking his brother in May 2022, for which he was detained for 18 months.
He was later diagnosed with schizophrenia and psychosis but the court heard there was no evidence of psychosis during the offending against his girlfriend.
The man has been sentenced to 13 years and five months in jail, with a non-parole period of six years and four months.
The man will be eligible for parole at the earliest in May 2029.