Man jailed for raping half-sister as teen

A NSW man could walk from prison within a year after a court found he raped his half-sister in her bedroom at their rural home as a teenager.

The sentence, handed down on Monday by District Court Judge Gordon Lerve, was the second imposed on the male, known only as RB, over the sexual assault of a child.

On one occasion between January 1 and April 13, 2013, RB held his half-sister down on her bed and digitally penetrated her vagina for 30 seconds.

A teenager at the time, RB was five years older than his sibling, who reported the attack to the police in July 2021.

"I know what you did to me when I was younger. I know it was wrong. I want to go forward with it," the victim told her attacker in May 2021.

"Don't do it. You'll f*** up my life. You don't think my life is f***ed up as it is?" RB replied.

In May this year, he pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse with a child. This early plea entitled him to a 25 per cent discount to any jail sentence.

On Monday, Judge Lerve sentenced RB to a non-parole period of 12 months and a maximum jail sentence of one year and 10 months. 

The judge found the crime was slightly below the mid-range of seriousness given the type and duration of the assault and the ages of both victim and offender.

The offence was aggravated because it took place in the victim's bedroom, the court found.

Judge Lerve also took into account RB's lengthy criminal history, saying he could not be as lenient with his sentence due to prior convictions, which included another rape of a minor when the NSW man was a teenager.

In June 2020, the judge imposed a three-year community corrections order on RB for the separate sexual assault of a five-year old while the two were at a day care centre in February 2010.

RB was also sentenced in March this year to nine months behind bars for assault occasioning actual bodily harm and was separately sentenced to two months in jail in April for larceny.

"In the circumstances, namely the offending in 2010, the offender is simply not afforded the leniency he would have received had he been a person of prior good character," the judge wrote.

A lower sentence was imposed over the 2013 rape of his half-sister because of RB's youth and immaturity at the time, and the delay taken by the victim to come forwards to the police.

His disadvantaged youth - in which the evidence showed he was physically assaulted as a toddler, and inhaled aerosol can vapours and sniffed petrol as a child - was also taken into account.

"I am of the opinion that there should be a reasonably generous finding of special circumstances in this matter," the judge said.

RB will be eligible for parole on January 2, 2023. His maximum prison sentence will expire on November 2 the same year.

Lifeline 13 11 14

Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25)