Former Home and Away actor jailed for five years for aggravated sexual assault

Actor Martin Peter Lynes has been jailed for at least two and a half years for aggravated sexual assault.

The former Home and Away star was handed down a five year prison sentence with at least two years and six months of non-parole time by a court in New South Wales in Australia today. The judge at Parramatta District Court back-dated his sentence to August of 2017, meaning he'll be eligible for release is February of 2020, reports 9 News. Lines, who played villain Adam Sharpe on the show, was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in her home in 2015 and in 2016 by a jury in August. The trial had earlier heard accounts of how Lynes violently attacked his victim, who was known to him, reports The Daily Telegraph. He was acquitted of two other charges - one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one of having sexual intercourse without consent. He had pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him and denied being violent towards the victim. In one police interview, he said that he had on one occasion been forced to restrain the woman when she became violent towards him during an argument. The former actor, now a real estate agent, also appeared on shows All Saints and Blue Water High.