Steven Vincent Blunden found guilty in Lismore court of sexual intercourse without consent

A Kempsey man is behind bars after a jury found him guilty of raping a woman with cancer on the North Coast. Here’s how the trial played out.

A jury found Steven Vincent Blunden guilty of rape on February 16, 2023

A Kempsey man has been found guilty of raping a woman in her 40s suffering from cancer and undergoing chemo and radiation treatment.

Steven Vincent Blunden, 51, was found guilty by a jury at Lismore District Court on Thursday of sexual intercourse without consent and attempted sexual intercourse without consent.

The offence occurred in June, 2021 at Casino after a night out playing the pokies.

Blunden returned to the woman’s home and they lay on a mattress watching TV, the court heard.

Blunden then grabbed her arm and rolled her on her back. He pulled off her pants and said: “You’re not putting them back on”.

He grabbed hold of her legs and pushed them up toward her head, restraining her arms before trying to force sexual intercourse, the court heard.

She twisted away, tried to escape and told him to stop.

“You don’t want to f--k me? Have you got someone else?” Blunden said.

She replied: “No, I’m too sick and weak”.

The victim told the jury sex “was the last thing on her mind” because she had cancer and was undergoing chemo and radiation treatment.

She said Blunden hurt her by inserting his fingers inside her and she told him to leave, which he refused.

The woman couldn’t stay awake and fell asleep, because she was “weak and frail”.

She called police after waking up at 3am with Blunden lying naked next to her.

Blunden consistently denied the allegations: “That’s lies.”

“I didn’t do it,” he said.

“I never sexually assaulted her”.

During cross examination, Blunden said it was the victim who wanted sex, they both pulled their pants off, but he fell asleep.

Blunden said when the woman woke up she accused of him of pretending to be asleep so he could go and sleep with the “big fat” neighbour.

He said she called the police on him because “she is very jealous”, claiming she was mentally ill and delusional.

Defence barrister Gemunu Kumarasinhe said there was no bruising on the woman’s body and told the court her claims were inconsistent.

The court heard the victim’s DNA was “possibly” on Blunden’s right hand, but there was no proof it was due to the assault.

Mr Kumarasinhe said the victim not attending hospital after the assault cast doubt upon her evidence.

But the prosecution said the victim did not go to the hospital because she was receiving regular cancer treatment and didn’t want to see the inside of a hospital more than she needed to.

The prosecution’s case relied on the evidence of the victim, and the defence case relied on the evidence of the accused.

“It’s (Blunden’s) freedom that matters here,” Mr Kumarasinhe told the court.

“You don’t convict someone on suspicion.”

The jury, after almost six hours of deliberation, handed down a guilty verdict on both charges.

Blunden, who was on bail throughout the trial, was taken into custody.

The case is listed for sentencing on May 12.