Two teenagers involved in the high-profile pack rape of a 14-year-old girl in a western Sydney park have been spared jail.
The young men, neither of whom can be named because they were under 18 at the time of the offending, were due to face trial earlier this year but entered 11th-hour guilty pleas to charges of sexual intercourse with a child in company over the February 2014 attack.
Sentencing the pair in Parramatta District Court on Friday, Judge Martin Sides described how the younger of the two had approached the 14-year-old on a street in Doonside late one Saturday night and asked if he could speak with her.
The victim recognised the teenage boy as an older student from her high school and walked with him to a nearby park, where the pair chatted about school and life.
"The young offender then leaned over and kissed the victim," Judge Sides said.
The Year 11 student began to have sex with her and then the girl heard footsteps.
Within moments, they were joined by three of the boy's friends, and she heard him make a comment about "taking turns".
"The victim was outnumbered four to one," the judge said.
The ordeal only ended when the girl's friend came looking for her, calling out her name.
Four youths were charged in the weeks that followed and two have already been dealt with by the courts.
Judge Sides said on Friday the two remaining offenders, who both came to Australia from Sudan as children, struggled with intellectual disabilities.
Although prosecutors argued the boy who first approached the girl "still holds blame towards the victim" because she did not speak up about her age before or during the attack, the judge said he was not persuaded this was evidence of a lack of remorse.
"The court is satisfied that had she revealed her age, he would not have had intercourse with her," Judge Sides said.
"This should not be seen as the court blaming the victim but merely reflecting the situation from the young offender's perspective."
He handed the boy a suspended control order on Friday, meaning the teen will never serve any time over the attack if he remains of good behaviour for the term of the order, which runs for just under two years.
Judge Sides sentenced the other offender to a lengthy control order but backdated it so that the teenager - who was on probation for other offences when he committed the crime - could be immediately released on parole.
