Clinton John Colson guilty of horrific 2008 Adelaide home invasion

A home invader who forced a couple to perform sex acts in front of a young child has been found guilty a decade later after DNA evidence uncovered a key link.

Disguised and brandishing a handgun, a man forced his way into a suburban home and forced its occupants to perform sex acts upon each other in front of their young child as he ransacked their home, a court has heard.

More than a decade after the horrifying crimes, Clinton John Colson, 42, has been found guilty of ten charges including three counts each of false imprisonment and aggravated procuring sexual intercourse by threats or intimidation.

He was arrested in 2019 after advances in DNA technology found “extremely strong support” that he was a contributor to DNA taken from inside a white cricketer-style hat left at the scene of the 2008 home invasion.

He stood trial in the District Court before Judge Geraldine Davison in the absence of a jury.

At trial, the court heard a woman had been working overnight from her suburban Adelaide home when she stepped into her garage about 4am for a cigarette.

As she opened the door, Colson – wearing the hat and a black scarf wrapped around his face – was standing in the garage, arms outstretched and palms together. She screamed and ran inside to her young child’s bedroom before being ordered into the master bedroom where her husband had been sleeping.

Colson rummaged through the bedroom before ordering the woman to undress and the couple to perform sex acts on each other. Their young child was crying.

After continuing to raid the couple’s home, Colson stole a car and multiple possessions including jewellery, a laptop, handbag and mobile phones.

Police later found the couple’s damaged and missing car and some of their property strewn around Brompton, where multiple residents reported seeing a man jumping over fences.

When tidying up their home a few days after the incident, the couple found the white hat inside their walk-in wardrobe and provided it to police who took DNA swabs.

Around the same time, Colson was arrested in possession of a silver handgun but was not linked to the crime until DNA from the hat was re-examined in 2018, and a report provided the following year.

In her reasons for verdict, Judge Davison said phone records from the time also indicate Colson was in the area where the car was dumped and another suburb where more of the couple’s belongings were found.

“The proven circumstances of this case when considered as a whole satisfy me beyond reasonable doubt that the accused is the offender,” she said.

“The fact that the accused was in the area on that night, his DNA is in a hat used to disguise the offender and left at the scene inside the walk-in wardrobe.

“I am satisfied that there is no rational hypothesis consistent with the innocence of the accused.

“I therefore, find the accused, Clinton Colson, guilty as charged.”

Colson returns to court next month.