Katoomba High School rape, Blue Mountains: Boy jailed for house party mattress rape as girl sues

A teenage girl who was raped in a two-hour-long assault on a mattress at a house party has branded her remorseless attacker a ‘monster’, with the rapist able to walk free from jail in just two months.

Both the victim and her attacker were 16 years old at the time and attending Katoomba High School, with the girl’s family now considering suing the NSW education department after warning teachers he had made threats against her.

The Blue Mountains teen, who must remain unidentified, was sentenced on Thursday after his victim delivered a powerful impact statement, telling the magistrate her assailant was a ‘monster’ for the 2019 assault.

The court heard the teenager raped the girl on a mattress in the living room of a house while other teens who were at the party slept under the same roof.

The boy was initially involved in consensual activity with his victim before pushing further, sexually assaulting her six times and intentionally choking her over a two-hour period in the living room of a home west of Sydney.

He received a nine-month prison sentence with the opportunity of parole by October 25 at Parramatta Children’s Court on Thursday, after a magistrate found him guilty in May. 

The girl didn’t like her attacker but was heavily affected by alcohol when the attack occurred, the court heard.

She has described the boy as ‘a monster’ who’d left her ‘ashamed and irreversibly damaged’ and struggling with nightmares, psychological issues and low self-esteem.

‘I hate you for what you did to me,’ he said in a statement read by lawyer Michael Bradley outside court.

‘You don’t deserve to be happy after the cruelty you showed me. I’ve struggled every day since, so have my parents, my little sister, my friends and loved ones. 

‘He violated me and he took away my virginity. He took away my confidence, my mental health and the healthy life I led before the attack.’

The girl’s family is now considering suing the NSW education department for the high school’s alleged failures to address warnings about the boy prior to the attack, Mr Bradley said.

They called for the department’s report into the school’s response to be released publicly.

‘What happened to me is happening to far too many girls in Australia,’ the girl said in the statement.

‘The untold number of rapes and attacks on Australia’s schoolgirls needs to stop.’

Mr Bradley’s (pictured) client gave a heart-breaking impact statement while in court, calling her rapist a ‘monster’

The Blue Mountains man will be on probation until August 2023 for acts of digital rape, oral rape and choking committed during the attack

The attack occurred on a mattress in the home’s living room, after the party had quietened down and other attendees had gone home or retired to bedrooms. 

He and his family insist he is innocent. 

‘The young person has shown no contrition,’ the magistrate said.

‘(The victim) was required to come to court and relive the offences.

‘He, in effect, placed responsibility for the offences on her.’

The boy’s lawyer had suggested it was noteworthy that the girl had her phone next to her during the attack and hadn’t called out to others in the home for help.

The magistrate dismissed that.

‘There is no right way to deal with the situation and no right way to act, and I draw no criticism or draw no conclusions (upon her),’ she said.

References of the boy’s otherwise good character and supportive family and social ties mitigated the sentence, with the magistrate accepting his prospects of rehabilitation were ‘strong’.

In addition to the custodial sentence for penile rape, he will be on probation until August 2023 for acts of digital rape, oral rape and choking committed during the attack.

The Blue Mountains man received a nine month sentence at Parramatta Children’s Court (pictured) on Thursday for raping a 16-year-old schoolmate on a mattress at a house party in 2019