A teenage boy has pleaded guilty to repeatedly raping a woman while armed with a tomahawk during a home invasion in Cairns last year.
The 16-year-old, who cannot be named, faced the Children’s Court in Cairns by video link from a detention centre for an arraignment hearing today.
The court heard the boy committed the armed home invasion with two other teenagers at Manunda in Cairns’s inner west.
One of the other boys, now aged 17, was armed with a knife, the court heard.
The woman and man who lived at the home were awoken in their bedroom when the boys broke in about 3am on February 21, last year.
Two of the teenagers raped the woman multiple times in different parts of the home, while the third boy, now also aged 17, allegedly detained her partner in the bedroom.
Weapons were held to the woman’s face during the ordeal, the court heard.
“You both stole her wallet, which had money, her driver’s licence, bank cards and other personal cards, her mobile phone and her watch from her,” the judge’s associate put to the 16-year-old during Thursday’s arraignment.
The rapes ended when one of the other boys told the teenager being arraigned that they needed to leave the house, the court heard.
“All three of you told the male and female not to call the police or you would kill them,”
the associate said.
Boys broke into home earlier, court told
The 16-year-old pleaded guilty to 15 charges, including five counts of rape, two counts of armed robbery in company, and two counts of deprivation of liberty.
The court heard he and his two co-accused had allegedly broken into the same home where the rapes took place much earlier in the night, while the occupants were not home.
On that occasion, they stole headphones, the court heard.
The court heard the rapes took place in a home at Manunda in Cairns. (ABC News: Conor Byrne)
Their alleged offending throughout the night also included a break-in at an Edge Hill grocery store, where they tried to break into a locked cigarette cabinet, and a failed attempt to steal a woman’s car from another home.
The two boys accused of raping the woman are next due to face court on July 14, when a date was is expected to be set for a joint sentencing hearing.
“People will talk to you about how you’re going and how your life has been, and we’ll work out a date for your future case at an upcoming time,” Judge Dean Morzone told the boy.
The third boy — accused of detaining the man in the bedroom while the rapes took place — has also been committed to face trial but is yet to enter pleas.
He is next due to face court on July 13.
