The ACT's top court has doubled the non-parole period imposed on a man who impregnated his underage cousin in a roadside rape.
His 18-month minimum jail term was not even close to being enough, a trio of judges said on Thursday as they upped it to three years.
While the three ACT Court of Appeal judges also thought the four-and-a-half year total sentence imposed by Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson last June was "very lenient", it will remain unchanged.
The ACT Supreme Court heard last year how the Canberra man, who cannot be named, had raped his cousin three times within the space of six months in 2010.
The offender was 20 at the time in question, while the victim was 14 and 15.
The second rape, which occurred by the side of a road near Woden, resulted in the victim falling pregnant and later having an abortion.
The girl disclosed to her mother and then to police that she had been raped once she discovered she was pregnant, but she made up a story about being attacked by a stranger because she was scared of revealing the truth.
Eight years on, she told police her cousin had in fact been the perpetrator.
The man, who was accordingly arrested, pleaded guilty to four child sex charges.
One of these related to the disturbing revelation that he had begun preying on the victim while he was also still a child, having committed an indecent act on the girl when he was 15 and she was just nine.
While prosecutors did not take issue with the total sentence handed down by Justice Loukas-Karlsson, they challenged the 18-month non-parole period she imposed on the basis it was "manifestly inadequate".
Justice Michael Elkaim, Justice David Mossop and Justice Robert Bromwich agreed with this in the Court of Appeal on Thursday.
They said Justice Loukas-Karlsson's sentencing reasons had been "infected by errors", which included inadequate attention being given to the need to deter others and sufficiently denounce the offending.
The rapist, who would have been eligible for parole in December this year, must now remain behind bars until at least June 2024.
