North Coast sex offences: The faces behind horror sexual assault numbers
A shocking number of sex assaults occur on the North Coast each year. Here are some of the culprits, and one brave survivor who has shared her harrowing experience – and battle for justice.
Regional News
Don't miss out on the headlines from Regional News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Music lover, avid reader and keen beachgoer Phoebe was 20 when she arrived home from a Christmas party and let a man she called a friend into her home.
A short time later, Phoebe* found herself being flipped forcefully on her stomach and sexually assaulted.
She unsuccessfully begged her attacker to stop and woke traumatised and injured the next day.
It happened three years ago, but Phoebe lives with long-lasting impacts of the breach of trust.
In total, 463 sexual assaults were reported on the North Coast in the year to June 2023, according to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR).
NSW had 7637 sex assaults reported, meaning the North Coast had 6.06 per cent of the total assaults – more than one in 20.
In the year to June 2022, the North had 5.93 per cent of the state‘s sex assaults.
Coffs Harbour was the worst North Coast location for sex assaults in the year to June 2023, with 127 reported. It‘s followed by Lismore on 78, Clarence Valley on 61 and Tweed on 60.
People Phoebe’s age are within the age range group of 18-24 most likely to experience sexual assault, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Women are more likely to experience sex assaults than men: 17 per cent of women (1.6 million) and 4.3 per cent of men have been assaulted since the age of 15.
Many assume predators looming in dark alleys are the culprits – but the ABS found 53 per cent of perpetrators against women were an intimate partner in the 2021-22 financial year.
Phoebe falls in that category, though said she had just kissed her attacker previously.
It’s a similar story when it comes to assaults on men and boys.
Moreover, 69 per cent of assaults referenced by the ABS occurred in a home.
Three years on, Phoebe has moved to Western Australia and works in retail while studying law.
She has moved on physically, but is still impacted by the night she was taken advantage of.
Phoebe said she met her attacker when she was just 15. They talked on and off, but had not had sex before.
On the night, Phoebe said the man “wouldn’t stop calling” and “said he needed to come to her house to talk”.
She invited him over when she got home about 2.30am.
“I remember saying to him nothing is going to happen, because we had kissed a few times in the past and he tried to get me to do more, but I always said no,” Phoebe said.
“I was falling asleep on the couch and he dragged me over to my bed and flipped me on my stomach and assaulted me.
“I remember thinking ‘oh my god he is on top of me, I can’t see him’. I had been drinking so I couldn’t process what was going on. I just kind of froze,” she said.
“The entire time it was really painful … I was like ‘ow stop, stop, stop – what are you doing’ and he just didn’t stop. He wasn’t responding to my pain.”
Then he said: “I’ll be gentle, s--t up”.
Phoebe pretended to pass out and he continued assaulting her until he realised she wasn’t awake.
“He started shaking me. I didn’t respond because I mentally and physically checked out, I shut down,” she said.
All Phoebe can recall is her attacker carrying her to the shower before she woke up injured.
Six months after the assault, Phoebe reported it to NSW Police.
The investigation involved her calling her attacker and accusing him to try to get a confession in a conversation intercepted by officers.
The man said: “I knew you were in pain, but I thought it was a kink. I thought you were into it.”
Phoebe said she spent about 18 months embroiled in the “insanely frustrating” investigative process, which she described as “an absolute s--t show” that left her “in such limbo”.
“I was trying to heal and process in therapy, but then I couldn’t because every time I would get a police call it would bring me back there,” she said.
Phoebe said that eventually police decided to not proceed with the case, concerned there was not enough evidence to convict the man and that it was not in her best interests.
“I was not seeking justice in a system that was so against victim-survivors, I was just seeking accountability, for him to have some level of carrying the burden of what he did,” she said.
“I don’t think he ever really will.”
Phoebe has since been diagnosed with chronic post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and is medicated as she deals with the ongoing impacts of her experience.
Below are some individuals convicted for serious sex crimes on the North Coast in recent times.
Benjamin Ross Stevens
Casino house painter and abattoir worker Benjamin Ross Stevens was found guilty of forcing himself on a woman and sexually assaulting her.
The 33-year-old was found guilty in April by a jury of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent and three counts of stalking/intimidating intending fear or physical harm.
Stevens’ offending occurred on the North Coast between December 2018 and June 2019.
Stevens forced himself on the woman and had oral and penetrative sex without her consent, Lismore District Court heard.
He was sentenced to an overarching prison term of five years and six months and will be eligible for parole on January 11, 2026.
Family and friends of the woman filled Lismore District Court’s public gallery in support.
Troy Cridland
In early July, a jury found a former Northern Rivers police officer guilty of knowingly having sex with a 15-year-old girl.
After four weeks of trial at Lismore District Court, the jury declared Troy Robert William Cridland, 33, guilty of having sexual intercourse with a minor, perverting the course of justice and using the teen to produce child abuse material.
Cridland had sexual intercourse with the girl in a tent in a police station garage and a police car during a number of “sexual encounters” between March and August 2020.
The offending occurred in a town west of Lismore while Cridland was a member of the Lismore – Richmond Police command.
Cridland was taken into custody ahead of sentencing due later in the year.
Steven Vincent Blunden
Steven Vincent Blunden forced himself on a North Coast woman undergoing chemotherapy and continued to proclaim his innocence as he was led from court to prison.
The 51-year-old was convicted by a jury at trial in Coffs Harbour District Court in February of sexual intercourse without consent and attempted sexual intercourse without consent.
The court heard Blunden grabbed the woman’s legs and penetrated her in mid-June 2021 “even though “she told him to stop and she told him to leave”.
The woman was feeling “weak and exhausted” due to chemotherapy at the time.
Blunden was sentenced to a total jail term of four years, however, he will be eligible for parole on February 15, 2025 considering time already spent behind bars.
Jayden Davis
A jury found Casino man Jayden Davis, 26, guilty of raping a young woman.
She thought she was having sex with her boyfriend until she noticed the offender’s facial hair, Lismore District Court heard.
He was found guilty of having sexual intercourse with the woman in her early 20s without her consent during a gathering at a Casino address in early 2021.
A trial was called before a jury to determine if the victim consented to sexual intercourse at the time, and if Davis knew she was not consenting.
Davis admitted to having sex with the woman and the court heard his DNA was found inside her because he did not use a condom.
“He should have said something to me but he didn’t,” the woman said.
The court heard Davis “was drunk and in the mood, so I thought f--k it” and that he believed the woman was consenting.
The court heard he “ripped” out a tampon during the assault, causing the woman pain.
* Editor’s note: Phoebe’s real name has not been used to safeguard her identity.
Police allege drugs, guns, ammo linked to crime group
A man in his 60s has faced a Mid-North Coast court on a long list of drug and gun charges. Police allege they found an illicit haul linked to a criminal group.
Read more
Foundation serves up ‘little bit of hope’ in cost of living crisis
The founder of an Indigenous food program dishing out meals across the Northern Rivers says he’s keeping a promise to his grandfather to keep “feeding our people - not just with food, but with hope”.
Read more