‘As low as it gets’: The Geelong crooks who preyed on the elderly
As a sentence looms in one of Geelong’s most horrifying crimes this decade, the Geelong Advertiser lifts the lid on shocking crimes against some of our most vulnerable residents. SEE THE LIST.
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This week, a County Court judge will hand down a sentence in one of the most shocking Geelong crimes this decade.
In the early hours of August 15, 2021, Shane Huici broke into a St Albans Park nursing home and attempted to orally rape a 90-year-old resident.
Hours before the crime, Huici was partying at a 21st birthday party at the Bush Inn in central Geelong.
While walking home, he broke into the nursing home and attempted to orally rape a 90-year-old resident, who woke to find Huici in her room.
Staff members scared Huici off, and he was arrested the next day.
In November, he plead guilty to attempted rape, aggravated burglary, recklessly causing injury and theft, just days before he was due to stand trial on a more serious charge of rape.
On Thursday, he briefly appeared in the County Court once more ahead of his sentencing for a further plea.
Judge Pardeep Tiwana set May 16 as the day he would be sentenced.
Huici’s crime is just one of many against the elderly heard in courts in Geelong and across the state.
In the past year, older people have been victims in some horrific crimes in Geelong, both at the hands of relatives and complete strangers.
There have been multiple alleged carjackings and a 73-year-old woman was reportedly stabbed as she walked down a street near her home.
Last year, Seniors Rights Victoria (SRV) a leading organisation tackling the issue of elder abuse, launched its “Older, Not Alone” campaign.
SRV chief-executive, Chris Potaris, said in the organisation’s 2022-23 annual report that SRV had seen a 40 per cent increase in calls to its statewide helpline.
“One in six older people has experienced some form of elder abuse in the last year,” he said.
The Geelong Advertiser reported last year that Barwon Community Legal Service (BCLS) had seen a “significant increase” in older people seeking legal support.
Here are some of the most brazen crimes against the elderly from the past few years.
Gary Cripps
Aged-care workers are among those entrusted to care for some of society’s most vulnerable members, and betraying that trust can be severe.
Gary Cripps was employed at the Sea Views Manor nursing home in Ocean Grove, when he preyed on an Alzheimer’s sufferer.
Crips was jailed for a month in 2019 after pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual assault against a person with a cognitive impairment, stemming from two days in 2018.
The court heard the woman’s husband had been left in “utter despair” by Cripps’ actions, and said the pain would “never heal”.
Cripps’ lawyer, Len Hartnett, told the court the offending had come about as Cripps suffering a “meltdown” due to the stress of his job.
Magistrate Peter Mellas said the crime was a “gross” breach of trust on a vulnerable victim who deserved to feel safe.
Cripps remains on the sex offenders register until 2034.
Amber Dawkins
An elderly man found himself in the crosshairs during the unprovoked rampage of Geelong mum Amber Dawkins.
In December, Dawkins pleaded guilty to a number of offences including an “out of the blue” assault on a 71-year-old man.
Dawkins pushed the man out of a chair when he was sitting at a cafe in October last year.
It was one of a number of assaults in Dawkins’ “bizarre” crime spree, which magistrate Simon Guthrie described as “appalling” and “disgusting”.
Mr Guthrie told the court Dawkins’ attack would have had “physical and psychological” impacts on her victims.
For the spree, Dawkins was sentenced 120 days in jail, with 66 days reckoned as time serviced.
The Geelong mum launched an appeal, but it was abandoned in January this year.
Ashpreet Kaur
Ashpreet Kaur was convicted in November of theft and deception offences, after she stole from elderly women to buy luxury goods in a $7,000 shopping spree.
One of Kaur’s victims was an 86-year-old woman suffering from Alzheimer’s. Kaur used the woman’s bank card to make $1700 worth of purchases from David Jones and Myer, including a $725 watch.
The theft was only discovered when the woman’s daughter opened her mother’s bank statement and noticed suspicious transactions.
Kaur also stole from a 95-year-old woman, using her bank card to make more than $5000 worth of purchases, including goods from Myer, Truly Beauty, Mecca and the Fashion Outlet.
Magistrate John Bentley described Kaur’s actions as being “as low as it gets”.
Kaur was convicted, sentenced to a 12-month CCO and banned from working in aged-care for a decade.
Ben Cotter
Ben Cotter spent $45,000 of his elderly mother’s money on online dating, while living with her and looking after her healthcare.
Cottar pleaded guilty in January 2023 to making several large payments using his mother’s credit card, while living with his mother between October 2020 and April 2021.
His lawyer, Hillary Russell, told the court Cotter was using the money for “online relationships” he turned to after struggling during the pandemic.
Magistrate Franz Holzer told Cotter he should be “ashamed of himself” for the “disgraceful behaviour”.
Cottar was sentenced to an 18 month community corrections order (CCO) in July 2023, which must include 150 hours of community work.
Deniel Bee
Cotter isn’t the only Geelong crook to steal from his family.
Deniel Bee appeared in Geelong Magistrates Court in January last year and pleaded guilty to 19 obtain property by deception and four theft charges, after swindling his father’s music business of more than $63,000 over a three-year period.
The business did not survive.
The court heard Bee redeemed customer credits for cash, completed second cash-ups of the store and had customers deposit into his accounts.
Magistrate Ann McGarvie said the offending was “planned and calculated” and a “serious breach of trust”.
“Although the relationship here is of an employee stealing from an employer, it was also stealing from your father,” Ms McGarvie said.
Bee was convicted, fined $3000 and placed on a two-year CCO.
His father told the Geelong Advertiser there was “no winners in something like this”.
Benjamin Cazaly
Geelong man Benjamin Cazaly was jailed in March 2022 for a spate of crimes, labelled by a judge as “bizarre and dangerous”, including almost blinding a 71-year-old woman by pouring cleaning products over her head.
Cazaly had been living on the woman’s couch before he committed the attack in January 2020, pouring alcohol, cordial and milk over her head, before turning to cleaning products.
The victim spent 10 days in hospital and has permanently blurry vision.
Cazaly pleaded guilty to charges of recklessly causing serious injury, common assault and obtaining property by deception.
Judge Gerard Mullaly told the court Cazaly had made “selfish demands” and told him it was his “time to stop”.
“I am sure you have seen cycles of crime and imprisonment and I urge you not to become one of those,” judge Mullaly said.
Katarina Sluga
Aged-care worker Katarina Sluga failed to provide adequate care to her elderly mother.
During a welfare check, police found Sluga’s mother, Lidia, malnourished and suffering from pressure sores, in a home littered with rubbish and faeces and about 30 cats, in October 2018.
Sluga pleaded guilty in the County Court to one count of negligence causing serious injury.
Judge Sandra Davis found the offending “very unusual” as Sluga was the sole person responsible for her mother’s declining health and had become “isolated” from the rest of her family.
During the majority of her time caring for her mother, Sluga “did (her) best” and maintained a regular schedule, however her routine broke down over time and as her mother became sicker, Sluga “lost insight” and failed to find external care.
Sluga was placed on an 18-month CCO, including 100 hours of community service.
Lakeisha O’Toole
The Moorabool St bus interchange is never far from the headlines, and such was the case in 2021 when a woman twice spat in the face of an 85-year-old man.
Lakeisha O’Toole pleaded guilty to, but was not convicted, of the assault in September 2022.
The court heard the man had stopped to read the bus timetable, when O’Toole became “agitated and aggressive” when he didn’t move out of her way.
During a verbal argument, O’Toole spat in the man’s face on two occasions, and kicked the trolley her victim had with him.
Magistrate John Bentley said it was “just the most appalling behaviour I’ve heard”.
O’Toole was put on a good behaviour bond that was subsequently dismissed after completion.
Trent Halliday
A serial nightmare neighbour, Trent Halliday doesn’t discriminate when it comes to who he abuses.
In mid-2022, an elderly woman was walking her dog past Halliday’s home, when we walked out with his own dog and let it off the leash.
The woman told Halliday her dog was not comfortable with other dogs, and Halliday hurled expletives and verbally abused her.
When the matter, among others, came to court magistrate John Bentley found Halliday had a “lippy problem”.
“(Halliday is) quick to go off the handle … and uses colourful language against elderly people,” Mr Bentley said in April 2023.
Mr Bently told Halliday he “can’t afford to mess this up” and could end up in jail “on the next occasion”.
Halliday was convicted but Mr Bentley deferred his sentence so he could complete a community corrections order.
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Originally published as ‘As low as it gets’: The Geelong crooks who preyed on the elderly
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