A paraplegic who is vying for a Guinness World Record, has sexually assaulted a woman as she was passed out on her sofa.
Paraplegic basketball player Paul Alan Leon Redel, 31, last week pleaded guilty to digitally raping a woman in Manoora, a suburb in Cairns, Queensland’s far north, in late 2016.
The Cairns District Court heard Redel and his victim were drinking and involved in ‘consensual intimacy’ before she fell asleep and woke to Redel digitally raping her.
Paraplegic Paul Redel (pictured) sexually assaulted a woman as she was passed out on her sofa
Defence barrister Josh Trevino said his client ‘expressed deep shame and disgust’ in himself.
Mr Trevino said Redel was extremely drunk at the time and did not know he was doing anything wrong, the Cairns Post reported.
‘He came to the realisation afterwards that he had violated her,’ he said.
Mr Trevino said his client knew the woman for a couple of months before the attack.
Paraplegic basketball player Paul Alan Leon Redel, 31, (left) last week pleaded guilty to digitally raping a woman in Manoora, a suburb in Cairns, Queensland’s far north, in late 2016
Defence barrister Josh Trevino said Redel ‘expressed deep shame and disgust’ in himself after realising what he’d done
The defence barrister told the court Redel would struggle to cope in jail due to his physical disability.
The Judge said digital rape was considerably less serious than rape because it did not risk pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections.
The court also heard Redel did not use violence, a weapon or threats and did not cause residual injury.
Despite this, Judge Dean Morzone told Redel: ‘What you did to her was plainly vile and disrespectful’.
Judge Dean Morzone told Redel (second from right): ‘What you did to her was plainly vile and disrespectful’
Redel was jailed for two years, wholly suspended, the publication reported.
Redel is training in the lead up to an attempt at pulling a 5.5 tonne tank, in an effort to have his name etched in the Guinness World Record book.
The basketball player has been wheelchair-bound since 2009 when he fell off his dirt bike while riding with friends at the Atherton Tablelands.
He landed on a log and shattered his T8 and T9 vertebrae.
Redel lay trapped for two hours, before an emergency helicopter arrived to fly him to hospital.