A former Nowra breakaway Baptist preacher who once used his faith to justify repeated sexual assaults of his former wife has been sentenced for abusing the same woman, at times holding a gun to her, while they lived on the NSW South Coast.
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Larry Dean Harris, 71, was sentenced to five years behind bars by Judge Ian McClintock in Wollongong District Court on Friday, February 23.
Harris, who was previously served 20 months in a Queensland jail for the repeated rape of his wife Joy Harris, was found guilty on seven charges in NSW including sexual assault after a judge alone trial in 2023.
The NSW charges covered acts that occurred in 2003 while the couple were living on the NSW South Coast.
These included three counts of common assault, two counts of possessing an unauthorised firearm, two counts of take or detain with intent to obtain advantage and one count of sexual intercourse without consent.
A further charge of common assault related to conduct in the mid 1990s.
While on the South Coast, Harris was involved in ministering to the Nowra community and establishing the independent Shoalhaven Baptist Church but his pious exterior - he has never drunk alcohol or taken drugs - hid what was occurring behind closed doors.
Judge McClintock said the insidious nature of marital rape required a demonstrative sentence that expressed the community's abhorrence at such behaviour.
"Domestic violence and sexual assault in marriage is often hard to detect, it is underreported and there needs to be a significant aspect of general deterrence, that intersects with the need for a great deal of denunciation about violence in domestic relationship," he said.
This was distinct from what Harris had been preaching while a minister in Nowra and Queensland.
Judge McClintock said Harris justified the significant and serious sexual assaults that occurred in Queensland with a twisted interpretation of Christian scripture.
"The offender at the time justified his violent abuse of Ms Harris by some form of rigid adherence to an unenlightened creed," Judge McClintock said.
"Constant reference and justification by way of quotes from the Bible doesn't excuse the actual reality of the fact he engaged in an abusive relationship."
This conduct continued on the South Coast with Judge McClintock characterising the sexual assault as a "violent, exploitative and humiliating form of offence" and one that would attract "significant punishment".
Harris also pointed a gun at his wife, with firearms a "mundane" part of the household that had moved to Australia from Pennsylvania.
With time already served, Harris will be eligible for parole from May 15, 2026, with the balance of his sentence to expire on November 15, 2028.
