A sexual predator who pressured a 15-year-old girl to have sex in exchange for cannabis will spend up to nine months in jail as a result of being sentenced in the Supreme Court in Launceston.
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The man, now 47-years-old, was found guilty last week of two counts of penetrative sexual abuse of a young person in June 2018.
The counts comprised of oral sex and sexual intercourse.
"She was 12 months from the age of consent and you were 44-years-old, which is a considerable age disparity," Acting Justice David Porter said.
"She was vulnerable because of her age and her decision to use cannabis."
Acting Justice Porter said the man had been providing the girl with cannabis for several months, but had started asking for sexual favours.
"You were very persistent and eventually she gave in," he said.
She sent the man a picture of her breasts and possibly one of her bottom hoping that would be the end of it.
Shortly before the crime he told her she could obtain a "fair bit of weed without cash" and that he would like to have sex with her.
About 3am in the morning she texted him and they drove to a cul-de-sac in his car and had sex using a condom.
He gave her about two grams of cannabis.
She blocked him on Facebook soon after, but then contacted him at a later stage seeking cannabis.
After the man's partner assaulted the girl in November 2018 she had gone to police.
The man denied intercourse saying that he had erectile dysfunction and so the encounter was a "bit of a stalemate".
Acting Justice Porter said the man had been indifferent and reckless about the girl's age.
He said he did not believe that the man had an honest and mistaken belief that she exceeded the age of consent.
In a victim impact statement the complainant said that giving evidence had been terrifying.
She said she had hardly left the house for a year and was worried that her reputation had been destroyed.
She suffered panic attacks when going into public p[laces.
Defence counsel Beri Kurdistan submitted that the complainant's statement that "keeping the secret to myself was very hard" did not accord with evidence in the trial that the then-girl sent text messages to the man's son about having sex with his father.
She said the man's relationship had also suffered significantly.
Acting Justice Porter backdated the sentence to July 10.
Nick Clark
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
