A former Canberra brothel owner who raped new recruits under the guise of training them for the sex industry has been sentenced to more than 11 years in jail.
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An ACT Supreme Court jury last year found Bradley Lester Grey, 55, guilty of 14 counts of rape and six counts of committing an act of indecency without consent.
Earlier this month, he pleaded guilty to a separate charge of trafficking an underage girl for sex work.
On Thursday, Chief Justice Helen Murrell sentenced Grey on all 21 charges to 11 years and five months' jail, with a non-parole period of six years and three months.
The sentence was backdated to start in February 2018, when Grey was first taken into custody, meaning he will not be eligible for release until May 2024.
Grey's offending began in 2013, when he and his partner decided to travel around Australia for commercial sex work.
Grey and his partner met a 17-year-old girl at the Canberra Centre in June that year, and he told the girl he ran a modelling agency.
They did two photoshoots, and Grey had consensual sex with the girl on the second occasion.
He then told the girl he could organise for her to make "a lot of money" through sex work, and she agreed because she thought it would help her launch a modelling career.
The girl's housemates were concerned, but she told them she "really trusted" Grey.
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Grey and the girl agreed that she would give him about one-third of her earnings, which worked out to be about $300 per service.
He directed the girl not to tell clients she was 17, and to instead say she was 21.
Between June and August 2013, Grey drove the girl and his partner around Australia.
The girl estimated that during this time, she provided sexual services to about 130 clients in Adelaide, Brisbane, regional Queensland, Sydney and Perth.
While in Perth in August 2013, the girl and Grey had an argument and he refused to arrange her immediate return to Canberra.
Feeling "totally trapped", the girl contacted WA Police before managing to leave for Canberra the next day.
She said in a victim impact statement that she had struggled with her self-image since being trafficked for sex work by Grey, and that she felt manipulated, dirty and unlovable.
She said she still experienced disturbing memories that she believed would stay with her for life.
Chief Justice Murrell said Grey was aware the girl was vulnerable to his influence.
The judge said Grey did not only facilitate the girl being trafficked for sex, he personally delivered the transport.
"The motivation for the offence was financial gain," Chief Justice Murrell said.
"The arrangement was that the offender and his partner would receive about one-third of the [girl's] not insubstantial earnings, and that is what occurred."
During the course of about a year starting in December 2015, Grey raped seven women at Mitchell Mistresses, a Canberra brothel he was operating at the time.
Grey had been in contact with the victims, all aged in their 20s at the time, about the prospect of them working at the brothel before they attended interviews and he subjected them to what he called "training".
The rapes involved digital or oral sexual intercourse, and in the cases of two of the victims it was both.
Grey also committed acts of indecency without consent on four of the women.
Five of the seven women provided victim impact statements to the court, detailing the significant impacts of Grey's offending on their lives.
They include a suicide attempt, losing custody of children because of an inability to cope, depression, panic attacks, anxiety, difficulty with intimacy, and being unable to maintain work or study.
Chief Justice Murrell said most of these women had been vulnerable because they were young and desperate to earn money.
They also largely lacked experience in the sex industry and did not expect that "training" would involve sexual activity.
"The offender took advantage of the complainants' naivety and the element of surprise and associated shock ... to engage in sexual activity for his own sexual gratification," Chief Justice Murrell said
The judge said the sex industry was "notorious" for attracting and exploiting vulnerable people.
"It is important that those who operate sex businesses appreciate that a sex worker has just as much right as any other person to control what happens to their own body," she said.
"They are not to be objectified and treated as chattels."
