A PENOLA man convicted of blackmailing and raping a 14-year-old girl has had his suspended sentence “set-aside”.
He will now serve an immediate term of imprisonment for the offending.
Earlier this morning, Brenton James Ross, 21, was re-sentenced to four years and seven months with a three-year, eight month non-parole period following a successful appeal by the Director of Public Prosecution in the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Ross was ordered to serve the sentence behind bars.
Judge Gordon Barrett originally sentenced Ross to three years and six months imprisonment for charges of possessing and disseminating child exploitation material and two charges of rape.
However, after citing his age, lack of prior history and questioning his mental capacity, Judge Barrett fully suspended the sentence.
The charges related to a period where Ross started communicating with the victim on Snapchat and had requested and received nude photographs from the underage girl.
He screenshot and saved the images of the victim onto his phone.
In January 2017, Ross sent two pictures of the victim to her older sibling in an attempt to blackmail her.
Ross then sent threatening messages to the victim and arrived at her house uninvited, where she unwillingly met with him after he threatened to disseminate the images further.
The court heard when the victim had told Ross she did not feel comfortable with the situation, he told her “too bad” and said he would force her to engage in sexual acts with him “if you do not want them nudes around”.
The court heard Ross took the victim to a cemetery where he engaged in intercourse without her consent on two occasions.
Rumours of the offending reached the victim’s older sibling and when asked about the incident the girl admitted Ross had raped her.
When delivering judgement this morning, Chief Justice Chris Kourakis said the gravity of the respondent’s offending overwhelmed his personal circumstances.
“Considering all the circumstances of the offending, and notwithstanding the personal situation of the respondent, it was not open for the sentencing judge to find good reason to suspend the sentence,” Chief Justice Kourakis said.
“The strong message of deterrence where offenders exploit the vulnerability of immature complainants mentioned earlier has less force if sentences for rape are suspended in the ordinary course.”
As a result, the DPP was granted permission to appeal the sentence and the appeal was allowed.
