A teenager pleaded guilty to sexually abusing his young sister before facing court for his sentencing hearing. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to child abuse.
The repeated sexual abuse a young teenager inflicted on his own sister has created a “family tragedy”, his lawyer has said.
He was charged with filming himself sexually abusing his sister, who was several years younger than him, twice earlier in the 2020s when he was 15, but accepted he also abused her about once a month over a year.
Since his arrest, he has been supervised around other youths and moved out of his family home, the ACT Supreme Court heard during his sentencing hearing on Thursday (16 October).
The court heard the teen, who legally cannot be named, told a psychologist that during his offending, he had frequent sexual thoughts about his sister and would then assault her.
Another forensic psychologist, Ahu Kocak, said he told her he would sometimes watch pornography and then assault his sister.
But she also thought he had poor social functioning and wanted to fit in with his school peers and have something to “brag about”.
“His reward was that he had something to talk about, or that he could now say he was engaging in sexual relations with someone,” she said.
“People were talking about sex and the sex they were having and he didn’t have anything to talk about.
“He was rejected by women, he was bullied … even if he wanted to have sexual relations, it would have been very difficult.”
Ms Kocak said during his conversations with his school peers, he didn’t admit he was actually sexually abusing his own sister.
“He told me he didn’t tell anyone about his sister, but he certainly wanted to have some type of experience to refer to,” she said.
She said the teen also didn’t think his actions towards his sister were harmful.
Ms Kocak agreed he shouldn’t be allowed to return to his family home until he completed a sex offender program, particularly if young children were at the home, and should not work with children.
The teen pleaded guilty to two counts of incest and one count of using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material.
“The offending involved a significant breach of trust that a younger sister is entitled to have in her older brother,” prosecutor James Melloy said.
“This is an incredibly difficult matter, but our submission is that some period of full-time imprisonment is warranted.”
He said a pre-sentence report recorded allegations that the boy had displayed sexualised behaviour towards family members before he committed these incest offences.
The report also noted that more recently, the teen allegedly engaged in a sex act with someone his age at his school despite her repeatedly telling him to stop. He was not charged over these allegations.
Under questioning from Legal Aid defence lawyer Edward Chen, Ms Kocak said full-time jail would increase the teen’s exposure to anti-social peers and an anti-social environment.
“Imprisonment is likely to regress his progress,” she said.
Mr Chen said the best way to promote his client’s rehabilitation was to keep him in the community where he had access to his supports under long-term supervision.
“There’s no dispute this is a very serious offence. It’s a family tragedy,” he said.
Justice Belinda Baker has reserved her sentencing decision and will hand it down at a future date.
If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT 02 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call Triple Zero.
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