Justice at last for mum living in fear
A MOTHER raped in an aggravated burglary in country Victoria moved her children interstate and changed address six times for fear the rapist might hunt them down.
A MOTHER raped in an aggravated burglary in country Victoria moved her children interstate and changed address six times for fear the rapist might hunt them down.
Neville Mansfield raped the single mother during the home invasion almost 19 years ago and was yesterday jailed for at least 12 years thanks to DNA evidence.
Mansfield, now 50, walked into the country Victorian home in April 1993 with his head wrapped in a tea towel.
He put a knife to a six-year-old boy's throat, telling the mother: "Do as you are told or he will be hurt. I will slit his throat."
Mansfield tied the mother, a babysitter and two children up with stockings, shoved socks down their throats and pulled pillow cases over their heads.
He told the babysitter he was committing the aggravated burglary because of "the drugs".
"I have big bills to pay," he said.
Mansfield took the bound mother to the kitchen where he cut off her clothes and raped her.
"She expected she was also about to be murdered," County Court judge Marilyn Harbison said.
Mansfield later washed the woman with soapy water and ransacked the home, stopping to have a drink at one point.
Before he left, he said: "You are very lucky that I didn't slit all your throats and cut your dog's head off.
"You're not to tell anyone or I will come back with friends next time and kill you - and I will get a kick out of it."
Despite washing the mother, Mansfield left a small trace of DNA police matched to him via the national database after he committed crimes in Queensland in 2007.
Police also established he was in the country town at the time of the crime.
A jury found him guilty of five counts of rape, four of false imprisonment, three of making a threat to kill and single counts of indecent assault and aggravated burglary.
"For the family, their newly renovated and much-loved family home was transformed into a place of terror," Judge Harbison said.
"The family subsequently moved interstate and has changed address six times in the past 18 years; at the forefront of their minds was the threat that you would return to seek them out."
Mansfield received a maximum 16-year term.