Man jailed for underage sex with partner
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A north-west Tasmanian man has been jailed for four months for having sex with an underage girl who is now his partner.
The 41-year-old man had pleaded guilty in the Burnie Supreme Court to having a sexual relationship with a young person.
The man and his wife took the 15-year-old girl into their home after her mother died.
He and the girl secretly had sex for 10 months while she was still underage and she ended up pregnant.
She passed the child off as someone else's and kept living with the couple until Family Services learned the truth and intervened.
The man and his wife are now divorcing after 14 years and he and the 18-year-old girl are living together and having a second child.
Justice Shan Tennant said the man had taken advantage of a very young and vulnerable girl, and the ongoing relationship should not prevent a sentence of deterrence.
She jailed him and put him on the Sex Offenders Register.
