By Rebecca Peppiatt and Ezra Holt
A woman raped at knifepoint in her own home 31 years ago has outlined the devastating impact the offence has had on her life, as police tracked down the perpetrator using DNA and extradited him from Queensland to Western Australia.
The man, who is now 48 but was 17 years old at the time of the offence, and therefore cannot be named, faced Perth’s Children’s Court on Friday where details of the assault were aired.
The 48-year-old man was extradited to WA from Queensland earlier this year.Credit: Police Media
The court heard that on around 4am on Good Friday 1992, the man donned a balaclava and broke into the Embleton home of a 24-year-old woman who lived alone with her toddler daughter.
He lived a few hundred metres from her, the court heard, and therefore had likely been planning the assault by watching her in advance and working out that she lived alone.
He entered through a kitchen window and found the woman sleeping. He jumped on her, straddling her, the court was told, and pressed a towel into her face.
“She pleaded with the offender, ‘please don’t cover my mouth, I can’t breathe, please,’” the court was told.
The court heard the man then told the woman to roll onto her stomach and proceeded to bind the hands behind her back using shoelaces.
“She tried to stay calm and not upset him,” the court heard.
He held a 12-inch knife to her throat.
“‘Please don’t hurt me, I’ve got a baby’,” the court was told the victim said.
The court heard that the man then raped the woman, who believed he would stab her afterwards. He “tied a shoelace around her head” and “stuffed a sock in her mouth”. He went through her purse and took some money and then left.
The 48-year-old was extradited to WA from Queensland earlier this year.Credit: Police Media
The woman, who is now 55, managed to untie herself, the court was told, before grabbing her child and running to a neighbour’s house.
The court heard that after police were called, evidence was collected and frozen by forensic scientists who despite not having the technology to analyse DNA at that time, felt “confident” the technology would be developed in the future, prompting them to hold it in storage.
The court heard the man had moved to Queensland in 2016 and lived there with his partner and four children.
In December 2020 a partial DNA link was made to a relative of the offender and he became a suspect in the case. Six months later he was interviewed by Queensland Police who obtained a DNA sample from the man. It matched the profile of their rapist.
But during the interview, he said he had no recollection of the night in question.
“He said at the time that he was a heavy meth and alcohol user and couldn’t remember what he did that night,” the court heard.
“Ultimately he denied offences.”
In May 2023 WA Police extradited the man to WA to face charges of burglary, sexual assault and deprivation of liberty over the Embleton attack where he has been held in custody ever since.
In August this year, he pleaded guilty to the charges.
The 48-year-old was extradited to WA from Queensland earlier this year.Credit: Police Media
On Friday, while being sentenced for the attack, the court heard the victim’s impact statement.
“I don’t think there are words to describe how for over 30 years this has been the monster in my closest, the evil in the shadows, never knowing if he’s around watching me,” the court heard in a statement.
“This man raped me, in my own bed, it was pre meditated and planned. He held a knife, the size of my forearm, to my throat.
“I was tied up. I had tears streaming down as I begged him to please shut the door because I didn’t want my daughter to find me like this.”
The woman said the offence had had a lifelong effect on her and her children, saying she had suffered with insomnia, depression and anxiety in the years since the assault.
“I don’t feel safe, ever,” the statement read.
The woman’s son, a 13-year-old boy, also supplied a victim impact statement to the court explaining how the assault had ruined his mother’s life.
The man’s defence lawyer told the court his client was “remorseful for his offending” and that the incident had “played on his mind over and over in the last three decades”.
The court heard the then teen was “a troubled young man” who had mental health issues that were “unusual and untreated”.
The court also heard he was sexually abused by older males when he was six or seven years old.
In sentencing the 48-year-old, Children’s Court judge Wendy Hughes told the court the circumstances of the assault were “humiliating and degrading” and that it was “a very serious offence of its kind”.
She praised WA Police for their work in securing convictions for cold cases.
“People can have confidence that their cases will not be forgotten,” she said.
“People who are inclined to commit offences of this type should be on notice, these cases will not be forgotten, police will work tirelessly to make sure justice is served.”
She ordered the man serve four years and four months in prison, backdated to May when he was remanded in custody.
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