Goulburn horse trainer has rape sentence nearly doubled on appeal

CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to sexual assault.

A horse trainer who repeatedly raped a young woman at his isolated farm near Goulburn had his jail sentence almost doubled on appeal, after a judge said what he had originally been handed was “erroneously lenient”.

Glen William Jackson was found guilty and convicted on four counts of sexual intercourse without consent after a jury trial, before he was sentenced to three and a half years’ jail with a non-parole period of one year and 10 months.

Prosecutors appealled, arguing the sentence was manifestly inadequate.

Earlier this month, the NSW Court of Appeal said they were successful and resentenced Jackson to six years’ jail with four years’ non-parole.

In April 2021, Jackson was a 62-year-old man with prior links to a motorcycle gang and was living on his farm near Goulburn where he ran a business raising and training horses.

The young woman, who was connected to one of his associates, had just met him before she spent the night at his farm socialising with a group of his friends.

When she was left alone with him after everyone else went to sleep, he started making sexual comments to her. She repeatedly told him she wasn’t interested and went to bed.

However, he followed her into the bedroom and forcefully raped her four times, despite her repeatedly telling him “no”.

“I’m not one to f— with, you don’t know who I am,” he told her before assaulting her.

The woman left the farm the next day and went to hospital for a sexual assault examination.

The court heard Jackson, who maintained his innocence, had owned tattoo shops, had some involvement with a motorcycle gang for a number of years, but not recently, and had an interest in specialised rodeo events.

A sentencing assessment report said he expressed shock at being charged with the offences, tried to place blame on the victim and attempted to rationalise the offences.

The sentencing judge, the NSW District Court’s Judge Mark Williams SC, said: “His account which painted the victim as the sexual aggressor was clearly rejected by the jury”.

However, the judge also accepted he was entitled to leniency due to his “relatively good character”.

The appeal court’s Justice Sarah McNaughton said while it could be accepted there was limited planning before the offending, there was no doubt that Jackson was well aware of his victim’s lack of consent.

“This matter involves four counts of serious sexual offending against a vulnerable young woman, who was barely an adult, by a then-62-year-old man, previously unknown to her, on an isolated regional property with no independent transport, and where the options for meaningful intervention were seriously circumscribed,” she said.

She described the original sentence as manifestly inadequate and “erroneously lenient” when allowing the appeal, and the appeal court’s other two justices agreed with her reasons.

Jackson, who is now aged in his mid-60s, has been in custody since late 2023.

He will first become eligible for parole in November 2027.

If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732 or by visiting www.1800respect.org.au. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT 02 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call triple zero.