Father of Stanford rapist says son should not be punished for "20 minutes of action".

The public decried him, the victim confronted him, a court convicted him. But the father of the Stanford University student, who raped an unconscious woman behind a dumpster, has stood by him.

Despite facing a maximum sentence of 14 years, Brock Turner was sentenced to just six months in prison by a Californian court last week after a jury had found him guilty of three counts of sexual assault in connection with the 2015 attack.

Turner was arrested after two men cycling past spotted him lying on top of the unconscious woman and apprehended him until police arrived.

The sentencing judge, reportedly a former Stanford student, said he feared a longer sentence would have a “severe impact” on Turner, a champion swimmer who previously aspired to compete in the Olympics.

And Brock’s father, Dan Turner, agrees.

In court documents published on Twitter by Stanford law professor Michele Dauber, Dan Turner writes a passionate defence of his son’s crime, outlining the ways in which the conviction has impacted the 20-year-old.

“His every waking minute,” the statement reads, “is consumed with worry, anxiety, fear and depression.”

Formerly a keen cook and big eater, Brock also now “only eats to exist”.

This, his altered future and his inclusion on the sex offender’s list, is “a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20-plus years of life”, according to Dan Turner.

The apology statement goes on to claim that Brock has “never been violent” and is committed “to educating other college age students about the danger of alcohol consumption and sexual promiscuity”.

Turner’s victim wrote her own letter about his crime, which she read during Thursday’s sentencing hearing.

In the powerful victim’s impact statement, she told of her inability to sleep unless it was daylight, to go anywhere alone, to enjoy her body or her life.

“I had to force myself to relearn my real name, my identity,” she said. “To relearn that this is not all that I am. That I am not just a drunk victim at a frat party found behind a dumpster, while you are the All­ American swimmer at a top university, innocent until proven guilty, with so much at stake.”

Read the woman’s full statement here.

The leniency of Turner’s sentence has outraged many and sparked calls for the judge in the case, Aaron Persky, to be recalled.

Among those confounded by the sentence, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen, who expressed his belief that the punishment was not befitting of the crime.

“The sentence does not factor in the true seriousness of this sexual assault, or the victim’s ongoing trauma,” he said in an official statement. “Campus rape is no different than off-campus rape. Rape is rape.”