By Holly Thompson and Andrew Du
Warning: This story contains graphic content.
A West Australian father who was found guilty last year on 97 counts of rape over the horrific assaults of 12 women over two years has been sentenced to nearly three decades behind bars.
Adam Lusk, 46, drugged and raped the women between April 2020 and January 2022. During his trial, the Perth District Court was told the youngest victim was just 16 years old at the time of the abuse. A jury found him guilty in September.
Lusk, 46, filmed himself raping multiple women.Credit: Nine News.
Some had no idea they had been assaulted until police contacted them after finding footage of the assaults on Lusk’s iPad.
Six of the women Lusk assaulted met him on dating app Sugar Daddy Meet.
On Friday, Judge Alan Troy told the court that Lusk had been in the army between 1996 and 2002, and likely had post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of a deployment to East Timor.
When his marriage later ended, life “slowly unravelled” and then in 2020 he attacked his first victim.
Troy said his circumstances were unfortunate but no justification for the attacks, nor justification for his pleas of not guilty, which forced his victims to testify.
“Mr Lusk, the 97 guilty verdicts were, in my view, inevitable,” he said.
“[One victim] said ‘stop, get the fuck out’. You must have heard that ... and you ignored her. She said ‘stop’, and you said ‘shhh’.
“I still cannot work out in my own mind how you’re so self-deluded that you gave denial.”
Troy said had Lusk not been arrested he believed he would have continued to rape and assault women, stating he had planned out the offending, rendered his victims unconscious and kept video proof for his own sexual gratification.
“It was predatory – you showed no mercy forcing yourself on your 12 victims, it was almost mechanical,” Troy said.
“You told the psychiatrist you appear to think you and the victims had a good time together. Your sexual penetration was often violent.”
He said it appeared Lusk believed he had done nothing wrong, and that he had showed continued denial and a lack of any real empathy or remorse.
Lusk was sentenced to 28 years behind bars, backdated to January 2022, when he was first remanded in custody. He will be eligible for parole after serving 26 years.
In December, four of his victims recounted the attacks in court, all telling similar stories of feeling shame and worthlessness.
One woman, who sobbed throughout her statement, told Lusk that she was a sociable 21-year-old when she met him. She had hoped to strike up a relationship with his best friend, but one night Lusk drugged and then raped her.
The woman told the court she had no idea she had been assaulted until she was contacted by the police three months later.
“The police asked me if I knew someone by the name of Adam Lusk,” she said.
“My stomach dropped. They let me know he was being investigated for several crimes against women. I broke down crying.”
The youngest victim told the court she was just 15 years old when she met Lusk.
“I had feelings for him at the time, and it took me over a year for me to realise the severity of what happened and what he did to me,” she said.
“At such a young and vulnerable age I was forced to learn how evil and scary the world can be. It’s unfair to learn so young how terrifying people can be.”
National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service: 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
Crisis support is available from Lifeline: 13 11 14.
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