Thon Monyluke Deng Angui, 24, was sentenced to five years in prison by Toowoomba District Court on February 12 for raping a 20-year-old woman in Queens Park in June 2024.
The pair met at a nightclub, kissed consensually, but he forced her over a fence and assaulted her despite her pleas.
Judge Dzenita Balić called the harm ‘life-altering’ to the victim, who now battles fear and depression, yet weighed Angui’s refugee background, education success, and clean record to suspend the sentence after two years.
Judge Dzenita Balić, a Bosnian refugee herself, called him a “wonderful young man” during sentencing and took his traumatic childhood into account.
The ruling has drawn sharp online criticism over its perceived leniency.
