Judge sentences Black to five years, to be suspended after 27 months

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The former One Nation media adviser Sean Black will spend at least the next two years in jail for the rape and assault of a woman in 2007.

Black, a former staffer for ex-senator Malcolm Roberts, was found guilty of one count of rape and two counts of assault in the Brisbane district court this month following a four-day trial.

Judge Glen Cash on Thursday sentenced Black to five years in jail, to be suspended after 27 months.

Black raped the woman after she told him to stop physically abusing her in October 2007. He also pushed her down the stairs and kicked her. In another incident, he slammed a door on her fingers.

He was acquitted of a third count of assault.

Black posed a low risk of re-offending given he had not committed a crime in the 11 years since the offences, Justice Cash ruled. But he described him as having no remorse, also noting the impact of his crimes on his victim, including having to relive the trauma in the court process.

Black lost his job as Roberts’s chief media adviser when the former Queensland One Nation senator was found to be a dual citizen and therefore ineligible to sit in the parliament in October last year.

He remained working in the federal parliament in Roberts’s office for five months after his charges were first reported by Fairfax Media in May. A party spokesman at the time said the charges had been “noted”, but “do not relate to any parliamentary duties”.