‘Psychotic’: Terrorist’s brother felt entitled to rape

The brother of one of Australia’s most infamous terrorists has received a hefty jail sentence after he repeatedly raped a woman and forced her to perform sex acts on him until she vomited.

Arken Abdull Rahim Sharrouf, 35, appeared in Sydney Downing Centre District Court on Friday to learn his fate after he was found guilty of 24 counts of historical physical and sexual abuse of a young woman in 2007 and 2008.

The court heard the victim was an “isolated and vulnerable” teenager during the two years Sharrouf subjected her to sickening sexual and physical abuse.

After having sex with the woman, Sharrouf forced her head onto his penis and held it in place so she was unable to escape. The court heard he forced her to perform a sex act on him until she vomited, which Judge Peter Whitford said “would have been degrading, humiliating and likely terrifying for the victim”.

In another instance where he ordered her to perform a sex act on him despite her “expressed revulsion”, the court heard the woman felt “‘dirty, horrific and disgusting”.

Sharrouf directed the woman to engage in vaginal and anal sex and pressured her to comply “out of fear of what might otherwise occur.”

The court heard he continually ignored her lack of consent, even continuing a sex act while the woman was crying from the pain.

Sharrouf also physically abused the victim, including pulling her hair and beating her feet.

“The offences do however reflect the offender’s disdain in those moments for the rights and feelings of (the victim),” Judge Whitford said.

“Many, if not all of the offences, involved an affront to the victim’s dignity. Certainly much of the offender’s conduct was calculated or intended to try and dominate or control the victim.”

Sharrouf was convicted of eight counts of sexual intercourse without consent, aggravated sexual assault inflicting actual bodily harm, and attempting to choke the woman with the intention of intimidating her.

The judge-alone trial also convicted the 35-year-old for six counts of common assault, five counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, assault with an act of indecency, and two counts of using an offensive weapon with the intention of intimidation.

Judge Whitford noted the offences were not premeditated over the two year period.

“None of them represented planned conduct but were all rather spontaneous representations of, among other things perhaps, the offender’s perverse perception of his … entitlement,” he said.

The court heard Sharrouf was diagnosed with treatment-resistant schizophrenia with simultaneous depression after the offences.

Judge Whitford said the 35-year-old had been in a “psychotic state” when he subjected the victim to the ongoing abuse. The court heard he believed the victim was a police informant.

“It is more likely than not that the offender was less than fully aware of the consequences of his actions at the time of the offending,” he said.

Sharrouf’s continued denial of the offences, which he claims were fabricated, solidified the judge’s conclusion. .

Judge Whitford told the court the offender’s mental illness and immaturity at the time of the offending were factors which warranted “substantial leniency”.

Sharrouf was sentenced to ten years imprisonment, to be backdated to when he entered custody. He will be eligible for parole on January 30, 2025.

He will be transferred to a mental health facility which will allow him to undertake courses and employment.

The court heard Sharrouf had been charged with violent offences against another woman in 2019, but found not guilty due to his mental illness.

He is the brother of infamous terrorist Khaled Sharrouf, who gained international attention in 2014 when he posted a photo of his son holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier.

He was killed during a US air strike three years later while fighting for Islamic State.