A callous predator exploited the "immaturity and naivety" of multiple child victims to lure, trap and rape them.
"Deliberately and clinically using them for his own sexual gratification," Justice Louise Taylor said on Wednesday, when she delivered her ACT Supreme Court sentencing remarks.
Samuel John Doughty, 26, abused social media, perceived favours and age differences to coerce his victims into unwanted sexual acts.
"It is, I am satisfied, predatory behaviour," the judge said.
The offender raped four girls, aged between 13 and 15, and indecently assaulted a 13-year-old girl, after contacting them through various social media platforms.
On Wednesday, Doughty was sentenced to almost nine years and seven months in jail for his crimes and will not be eligible for parole until April 2028.
He previously admitted to four counts of sexual intercourse with a young person, and one count each of committing an act of indecency on a young person and refusing a magistrate's order.
Justice Taylor described the man's repeated offending as having a "callous quality" that demonstrated a "sense of entitlement to use their bodies for his own sexual gratification".
She said he knew the girl's ages, that, in almost every instance they were not outwardly consenting, and he had "no regard whatsoever for the wellbeing of the victims".
Agreed facts previously tendered to the court detail the many ways Doughty trapped and sexually assaulted his young, unsuspecting victims.
Doughty's first victim, aged either 12 or 13 and whom he was friends with on Facebook, asked the offender to take her and a friend to a party in 2016.
But instead of driving her home later that night, he instead took her to a carpark. There, she repeatedly told him she wanted to go home.
He asked her to "sleep with me" as payment for driving her.
Despite her clear and loud protests, he raped her and covered her mouth to, as put by Justice Taylor, "silence her".
The second victim accepted a friend request from Doughty on Facebook, a platform that displayed her age and images of her in a school uniform.
She declined his requests to "meet up, get drunk and have sex with him" in 2016.
A year later, when the pair started speaking again on Snapchat, the offender agreed to buy the victim, 15, alcohol.
Before dropping the child home, Doughty asked her repeatedly for oral sex "in return for purchasing the alcohol".
Court documents state the victim reluctantly agreed because she felt too uncomfortable to say no, but physically rejected his persistent and forceful attempts to digitally rape her.
Doughty contacted his next victim, 14, on Snapchat in 2019, when he was persistent and "she found conversation with the offender very aggressive and intrusive".
He would threaten to turn up at her school if she didn't respond quickly enough and, on one occasion, sent her a picture he had taken of her there.
One afternoon, Doughty tracked the victim down by using a maps feature of Snapchat and coerced her into his car, before driving her to an isolated street against her protests.
"You're really not going to enjoy this but I will," Doughty said before he raped the victim, who said she felt "frozen".
The victim's mother, who had tracked down her daughter using the same Snapchat maps feature, began banging on the car window to stop Doughty.
The offender would tell the victim's mother he knew she was 14.
"This is my child you are having sex with. This is illegal and you know can be classed as rape?" the mother told him.
In 2020, Doughty contacted a fourth victim, aged 13, through Instagram and then Snapchat.
Believing the offender was either 15 or 16 years old, she met up with him and immediately felt in danger with the older-than-expected man.
His behaviour made her uncomfortable and she repeatedly rejected his advances, before he forcefully kissed her.
She declined multiple requests to get into his car and he indecently assaulted her as they eventually said goodbye.
Doughty contacted his fifth victim one 2021 afternoon on Snapchat before tracking her down using the maps feature, despite having never previously spoken to her.
He told the 14-year-old victim to get into his car and she reluctantly agreed, before driving her to an isolated area.
Despite rejecting his advances, he raped the victim in multiple ways as she repeatedly told him to stop.
He would later that day message her: "It was fun, let's do it again."
Justice Taylor said the victim impact statements previously read to the court reflected the "intense and pervasive" consequences the offending had on the children.
"No outcome the court imposes can return the victims to the place they were in before the offender committed his crimes," she said.
A pre-sentence report author said Doughty claiming he believed two of his victims were over the age of 16 and his descriptions of the assaults as "hook ups" were attempts to minimise his offending.
Justice Taylor said she was prepared to accept the offender demonstrated some capacity for reform and there was some evidence of remorse.
Doughty has already spent nearly 18 months in custody for his crimes.
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; Canberra Rape Crisis Centre 6247 2525; Bravehearts 1800 272 831; Blue Knot Foundation 1300 657 380.
