A man who abducted and raped a woman he met on a social networking app had his jail term slashed on appeal.
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The ACT Court of Appeal this week re-sentenced Randhir Singh to five years and 10 months imprisonment, with a non-parole period of three years and 10 months.
Singh, 24, was sentenced to eight years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 5½ years, in 2014 after he and his co-offender and former boss, Ajitpal Singh, 33, were found guilty of rape, acts of indecency and unlawful confinement.
The pair hatched the plan after Randhir Singh met the woman on social media application Tango in September 2013.
They exchanged explicit messages and arranged to meet at Kippax Fair the next day.
When the victim tried to back out, Ajitpal Singh threatened her child and said he would show her husband the Tango messages.
She was taken to a Belconnen apartment, and was sexually assaulted in the car and then raped in a bedroom by Randhir Singh.
Ajitpal Singh then entered the room, made further threats, repeatedly raped her and confined her to the room for 90 minutes.
He was last year resentenced to 8½ years' jail, with a non-parole period of five years after he won an appeal against his prison term. He will be eligible for release in October 2018.
Randhir Singh later launched a challenge against his sentence on a single ground of manifest excess.
Justices Richard Refshauge, John Burns and Darryl Rangiah this week allowed the appeal, noting there was "no doubt" it was manifestly excessive and there was an "appropriate distinction" to be made between the culpability of the two men.
The judges wrote the offences against the woman were "serious, committed on a defenceless victim and constituting a grave invasion of her bodily integrity". They required a severe sentence, but also one that was just and adequate.
The judges said while Randhir Singh initially contacted the woman, there was no suggestion he was contemplating the offences at the time.
"While the co-offender clearly made the more serious threats to the victim at the shopping centre, it was all part of the same effort by both offenders to take the victim to the apartment where they could engage in sexual intercourse with her."
They said he confined the woman unlawfully for a shorter amount of time than his co-offender, whose sexual conduct was also more serious.
Singh will be eligible for release in August.
