Kendal ‘Tiny’ Pinder to be sentenced for sexual assaults of woman

A convicted rapist who played for the Harlem Globetrotters and Illawarra Hawks “keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over” as he awaits sentence for raping the same woman more than a decade apart.

Former basketballer Kendal 'Tiny' Pinder is facing sex charges at Campbelltown Local Court.

A convicted rapist and disgraced basketballer who “keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over” will wait two weeks to learn his fate for two horrific sexual assaults of the same woman more than a decade apart, a court has heard.

Kendal ‘Tiny’ Pinder – who had a successful career as a professional basketballer with the NBL and NBA – pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault, rape, domestic violence and recklessly causing grievous bodily harm.

The 68-year-old man appeared in Downing Centre District Court on Friday where neuropsychologist Lisa Zipparo gave evidence that Pinder had low intellectual capacities and cognitive impairments.

The former Harlem Globetrotter, who went on to to win championships with Perth Wildcats before playing with the Illawarra Hawks, sat quietly from a prison cell.

Kendal “Tiny” Pinder blocks a shot during a game between Adelaide 36ers and Perth Wildcats game at Apollo Stadium in in South Australia in 1989.

The court heard horrific details that Pinder raped a woman in November 2009 where at one point he started laughing and told the woman to “just relax it will be all right” before the woman said “no, I can’t”.

Ms Zipparo said she would expect Pinder to understand the victim’s lack of consent but with his “inhibitory problems he might not be able to stop the behaviour,” adding his cognitive function, upbringing and attitude towards women made his offending “quite complex”.

The second raped occurred in March 2021 while the same woman was asleep before she tried to push him off.

Perth Wildcats basketballer Kendal Pinder (right) leaving the Campbelltown Local Court.

Ms Zipparo said Pinder did “keep repeating the same mistakes over and over” which she believed was due to Pinder’s lack of ability to control his inhibitions.

The court heard Pinder had a traumatic childhood, was injured when he was thrown through a thick-plated glass in his teens which required rehabilitation and had head injuries from playing basketball.

Ms Zipparo found Pinder was impaired in areas of “mental flexibility, inhibitory control, abstract thinking and working memory”, adding his impairment would affect skills to plan, make decisions, assess risk, predict outcomes and inhibit impulses.

Ms Zipparo noted she could not definitively determine what caused the cognitive impairment but said it appeared it had been affecting Pinder for most of his life.

Kendal “Tiny” Pinder (left) while playing for Perth Wildcats.

The court heard Pinder had completed a business degree at an American university while he was on a sporting scholarship and later helped managed a business.

Pinder began his basketball career in America in the 1970s and played for the Harlem Globetrotters between 1980 and 1983, before moving to Australia in 1985.

He played for the Wildcats and won championships in 1990 and 1991 before he played for the Illawarra Hawks.

Pinder was convicted of unlawful carnal knowledge of a teenage girl in 1976 in Miami and then convicted of three sex attacks on two teens and a woman between 1988 and 1990 before he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in Wollongong.

The court heard Pinder was also convicted of stalking a young who he followed from a train station in 2021.

Pinder will be sentenced on March 21.

Originally published as Kendal ‘Tiny’ Pinder to be sentenced for sexual assaults of woman