Gympie rapist Anthony Mark Moulden tried to pressure his victim to drop charges

A man has been jailed until at least October 2022 after pleading guilty to raping a young woman twice, before trying to force her to drop her charges, in Gympie two years ago. Warning: distressing content

Anthony Mark Moulden has been jailed until at least October next year after he pleaded guilty this week to raping a young woman twice, before trying to force her to drop her charges, in Gympie two years ago. Picture: Facebook

A South Australian man has been jailed until at least October 2022, after he pleaded guilty this week to raping a young woman twice, before trying to force her to drop her charges, in Gympie two years ago.

Anthony Mark Moulden, 39, was 37 when he preyed on the woman after getting drunk with her, her sister and the sister’s de facto partner – who Moulden worked for at the time – at a home at The Dawn on May 4, 2019.

On Wednesday, July 21, the Gympie District Court heard Moulden met the victim three weeks before the incident, soon becoming friends with her on Facebook and going for drinks at her house.

Judge Nathan Jarro said Moulden’s actions were “calculated” and “driven simply by a selfish desire for sexual gratification”. (AAP Image/Claudia Baxter)

On that occasion the victim went to bed and Moulden sent her “sexual texts”, which were rebuffed when the victim told him she had a boyfriend.

The victim didn’t hear from Moulden for weeks when he temporarily returned to South Australia, the court heard.

On May 4 the quartet began drinking again at the victim’s sister’s house, where Moulden “grabbed her hips” and smacked her on the bottom.

The “very intoxicated” victim had an asthma attack followed by a panic attack, and her sister took her to the bathroom before asking Moulden to look after her while she checked on the couple’s baby.

The court heard Moulden entered the bathroom, undressed and pushed the victim against the bathroom wall, grabbed her by the neck and hair and tried to kiss her.

The victim said no but Moulden rubbed up against her before raping her until she sank to the floor and called out to her sister.

The victim then went to her bedroom wrapped in a towel to sleep, but Moulden followed her, lay on top of her, held her hands down and raped her again.

Moulden would later approach the victim’s sister’s partner about the incident, asking him to talk to the victim about dropping her charges or threaten his partner to break up if she did not get the victim to drop the charges.

The court heard Moulden failed to show up to meetings with police in July and August of that year, and failed to appear in court on an unrelated matter that November.

In October, an arrest warrant was issued in South Australia, where Moulden had returned, and he was extradited to Queensland.

DNA evidence later confirmed the woman’s allegations.

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Judge Nathan Jarro said Moulden’s actions were “calculated” and “driven simply by a selfish desire for sexual gratification”.

Judge Jarro said the victim was “vulnerable and intoxicated”, and Moulden took advantage of her.

The court heard the victim had since struggled with “feeling crippled and sick inside” and a “pain she can’t escape”.

Moulden pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and one count of attempting to pervert the course of justice, with Judge Jarro noting he had served some 291 days in pre-sentence custody.

Judge Jarro sentenced Moulden to six years’ jail, with a parole eligibility date set for October 2 next year.