Pornography 'desensitised' teen rapist

10-13-2009 Australia:

The Northern Territory Supreme Court has heard a teenager who raped a 24-year-old woman had been surrounded by pornography, alcohol and drug abuse as a young child.

The 16-year-old boy pleaded guilty to raping the woman in an Alice Springs park in February.

The court heard he had been drinking with the woman as part of a larger group and convinced her to go for a walk.

He attacked her when she refused his advances.

"You violated her trust and used physical violence to achieve your ends," Chief Justice Brian Martin said.

The woman needed stitches to her head after the youth punched her prior to the sexual attack.

Chief Justice Martin acknowledged the boy had been desensitised to violence, including sexual violence, as a young child, having watched pornography with his uncle as a six- or seven-year-old.

The boy was convicted and sentenced to five years' detention and jail, with a non-parole period of three and a half years. ..Source.. by Kirsty Nancarrow