‘Deplorable acts’: Jail for rapist of Polish nanny who later died

A man has been jailed for 12-and-a-half years for the rape and vicious assault of a Polish nanny in a park north of Brisbane – but the victim didn’t live to see justice.

Police investigators at the scene of the assault and rape in 2016. Picture: 7 News

A man who raped and viciously assaulted a Polish nanny, 24, while she was out for an evening walk five years ago, leaving her battered and bruised, has been jailed for 12-and-a-half years.

Travis Alexander Manwarring, 32, will have to serve 80 per cent of the sentence, after Brisbane District Court Judge Nicole Kefford, declared the 2016 rape – in a park at Petrie, north of Brisbane – to be a serious violent offence.

Judge Kefford said Manwarring committed “an appalling act of personal violence, a violation of an innocent woman in a public place, subjecting her to humiliating and degrading conduct”.

“Having inflicted terrible violence on the complainant you callously left her battered and bruised by the side of the road,” Judge Kefford said.

“You’ve expressed no remorse for that conduct.”

Manwarring was found guilty of rape after a trial in March, last year, and he pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm.

He was found not guilty of assault with intent to commit rape.

The young woman, who had never travelled outside her village in Poland before coming to Australia, was raped and beaten by Manwarring so badly she required facial surgery.

The woman returned to Poland after the attack and died in a car crash in February 2017, three months after the rape.

Judge Kefford said she did not accept Manwarring’s claim, in his evidence, that there was consensual sex in the lead-up to the offending, saying he was not a credible witness.

The woman did not remember anything after going for a walk, and the head trauma explained her amnesia, the judge said.

Judge Kefford said it was open to the jury to accept that the assault occurred after the rape.

The woman’s underwear and shoes were found at the crime scene and blood was splayed across a fence and in diet and grass.

“Having regard to the evidence of the injuries and the blood splatter, I find that the assault was an extraordinarily violent one,” Judge Kefford said.

“Your conduct involved deplorable acts of personal violence in violation of an innocent woman in a public place.

“You subjected the complainant to degrading conduct, given your rape of her in a public place.

“Your actions took advantage of a vulnerable female seeking to maintain her health and fitness by exercising in a public area.”

The judge said Manwarring had infringed on the woman’s right to go about her recreational pursuits in safety and without fear of physical assault or sexual interference.

The evidence of the complainant’s injuries and blood indicated after raping the woman, he inflicted a considerable degree of violence.

“You left her in a very vulnerable state. She was seen walking in the area in a dishevelled state, with torn clothes,” Judge Kefford said.

The woman had ended up at a house of a stranger and the first word when she came to the man’s door was “help”.

Judge Kefford said the Polish woman had been enjoying her time in Australia and had intended to go home and return here to live.

“She entered that area of darkness… a fit, healthy young woman and left badly bruised and raped,” the judge said.

Psychiatrists said Manwarring had an anti-social personality disorder.

Judge Kefford said he presented a risk to the community, if released, because of his previous history of violent offending, including while in prison.

She also sentenced Manwarring for 18 other offences, imposing concurrent sentences.

She declared 1401 days he had spent in custody as time already served on the 12-and-a-half-year rape sentence.