R v Rahman

[2019] NSWDC 173

District Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:	R v Rahman [2019] NSWDC 173
Hearing dates:	6 February 2019
Decision date:	06 February 2019
Jurisdiction:	Criminal
Before:	Colefax SC DCJ
Decision:	Offender sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 6 years with a non parole period of 4 years 6 months.
Catchwords:	CRIMINAL LAW - sexual intercourse without consent.
Legislation Cited:	Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), s.61I
Category:	Sentence
Parties:	Regina (Crown) Maksudur Rahman (Offender)
Representation:	Mr Clayton (ODPP)   Mr Snelling (Counsel)
File Number(s):	2018/29027
Publication restriction:	Non publication order made of the name of the victim and any other information which might directly or indirectly identify her

Judgment

1. Masudur Rahman, you appear for sentence today in relation to one principal offence, that is, sexual intercourse without consent.

2. This involves a contravention of s 61I of the Crimes Act. The maximum penalty for the offence that you have committed is 14 years imprisonment. There is a standard non-parole period of 7 years imprisonment.

3. In addition to that principal offence, you have asked me to take into account a matter of sexual intercourse without consent which has been included on a Form 1, which I have certified.    

4. The circumstances surrounding the principal offence, and the matter on the Form 1, are contained in a statement of agreed facts, which you have signed. Slightly recast by me as to style, but not substance, the facts are as follows.   

5. In January 2018 you were working as a kitchen hand in a restaurant in the inner city of Sydney. You were aged 36 years at the time. Also working in that restaurant was a visitor to this country, a young woman who was aged 24 years, who came here from Holland. She was here on a working holiday visa.

6. On the evening of 27 January 2018, you and she were working the evening shift at that restaurant.

7. At the end of the shift, you and she and other workers were relaxing and drinking alcohol. The victim of these offences became quite intoxicated.

8. You also became intoxicated. You have told me today, and I accept, that your experience with alcohol (as at that time) was relatively new. You had only been drinking for a couple of years. That may have had something to do with the fact that you were born in Bangladesh where I can take judicial notice of the fact that the consumption of alcohol is certainly not encouraged.

9. In any event, in the early hours of the morning on the Sunday, about 3.30, all but four of the workers from the restaurant had gone home. You and the victim and two other workers remained. Then those other two left - and it was just you and the victim.

10. She wanted to go home. She wanted to get an Uber. You, however, decided that she would go back to your place and you pressured her to do so. She was very reluctant, but her resistance was considerably reduced by the alcohol she had drunk.…