Two-year sentence for attempted rape

Press, 17 July 1986, Page 4

Two-year sentence for attempted rape

Young teen-age girls had to be protected, Mr Justice Williamson said in the High Court when sentencing a young married man to two years imprisonment on a charge of attempted rape of his sister-in-law, aged 14.

The accused’s name was suppressed to protect the identity of his victim. He was found guilty by a jury.

Mr J. S. Fairclough appeared for the accused and Mr R. E. Neave for the Crown.

His Honour said that the accused approached the girl who was living with him and his wife who was not in the house at the time. He sexually interfered with the girl,

who was in bed, and caused her distress. She screamed and said that he had pushed her down and had intercourse or tried to have intercourse with her. In evidence the accused had agreed that he had sexually assaulted her but denied attempting to have or having sexual intercourse. By its verdict the jury rejected that explanation. The girl was not injured. The jury did not accept that sexual Intercourse, that is penetration, had been proved and consequently the verdict was one of attempted rape. It was a serious offence because the young girl was living in his home and he had special responsibility

for her. Obviously it created stress for her ini.tially because she did not .know what to do so far as the family situation and her sister and the accused were concerned. His Honour said that he accepted the submissions by Mr Fairclough that the accused had been under economic pressures in his family, that he was charitable to his family and inlaws and that the offence might have f been prompted by liquor, s “I feel greatly for your family but it is my duty to pass a sentence on you which the community requires me to do in order to stress to you and others that young teen-age girls have to be protected,” said his Honour.