VIC:14year-old sex victim wakes crying

AAP General News (Australia)
12-13-2010
VIC:14year-old sex victim wakes crying

MELBOURNE, Dec 13 AAP - A 14-year-old girl sexually assaulted by two men following
an afternoon of drinking says she suffers nightmares about the incident and wakes up crying.

Ravinder Singh, 31 and Steven Handros, 19 met with the victim and her 15-year-old friend
at Lalor train station in Melbourne's north in September last year.

Singh and Handros have pleaded guilty to sexual penetration of a child under 16.

A previous court hearing was told Handros, of Thomastown, met the girl through an internet
chat service about a year earlier.

The four drove to Epping Plaza in Singh's car before going to his Lalor property to
drink and watch movies on September 20.

Singh went into the bedroom with the victim and had sex with her.

A short time later Handros also had sex with the 14-year-old.

In a victim impact statement, the girl said she experienced frequent nightmares about
the incident.

"I sometimes have dreams about what happened and wake up crying," she said in her statement
read to the Victorian County Court in Melbourne on Monday.

"I feel like my whole life has changed and I just want it to be normal again."

The victim's mother in her statement said her daughter's confidence had deteriorated.

She rarely goes out, gets angry often and has trouble concentrating at school, the
statement said.

Singh's lawyer Julie Sutherland asked County Court Judge Meryl Sexton not to send her
client to prison, but to impose a wholly-suspended sentence.

She said the two girls had lied about their age to the men, who believed they were 16.

The pre-sentence hearing continues.

AAP md/gfr/maur

KEYWORD: HANDROS

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