Man sentenced to five years in Canberra for sexual assault
A court in Canberra, Australia, sentenced Lal Ro Puia to five years in prison for the sexual assault of a woman in an underground hotel car park in the north of the city. He will be eligible for parole in August 2028, ABC News Australia reports.
Attack in the car park
Puia was 30 years old at the time of the attack. In November last year, he followed the woman to the car park of a hotel on Northbourne Avenue. When she got out of her car, the man asked her for money or food and also asked her to hug him.
After she refused, he grabbed the woman by the waist. When she resisted, Puia pushed her to the ground, tried to remove her clothing and struck her head against the ground three times. The woman continued to defend herself and hit him on the head with her keys when he tried to take off his trousers. He then left the scene.
Sentence and supervision
CCTV cameras recorded the attack and the woman's attempt to fight back. When handing down the sentence at the ACT Magistrates Court, Magistrate Andrew Muller also took into account an additional charge of committing an act of indecency.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
The magistrate described the victim's attempts to resist her attacker as courageous. In her victim impact statement, the woman spoke of shock, fear and helplessness, noting that as the violence escalated, she feared for her life.
The court heard that Puia had long experienced mental health problems, homelessness and substance abuse. The defence referred, among other things, to the absence of DNA evidence and questions regarding the defendant's mental state.
Puia received a 25% sentence reduction for his guilty plea. The court set a non-parole period of two years and nine months and also provided for lengthy supervision in the community after his release.
