Aron Goodrem: Central Coast rapist jailed for 20 years
He detained, bashed, raped and even tortured his victims. One woman said she was made to feel like a “caged animal” while another thought suicide was the “only way out”. Finally the evil and sadistic monster has been handed his punishment
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WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT
A man monster who inflicted a pattern of horrific violence, suffocating torture and controlling abusive behaviour on six woman across a decade has been sentenced to jail for 20 years.
The despicable actions of the one-time wannabe outlaw bikie Aron Goodrem, who shifted his abusive and degrading behaviour from woman to woman from the age of 19, was outlined in court as his heavily-tattooed face beamed in from Hunter Correctional Centre.
The court heard how the former Central Coast landscaper unleashed years of abuse on the victims by controlling all aspects of their lives, from bank accounts, to mobile phones, to when they could shower.
One victims told the court how she once felt suicide was the “only way” to escape Goodrem who controlled her life for almost three years.
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On one occasion, the pregnant woman’s hands were tied to the stairwell of a South Penrith home. Goodrem became enraged when he was told “you are going to be a deadbeat dad”.
He threw a cigarette lighter at the woman, told her to “shut the f**k up” and stubbed her chest with a cigarette three times.
The pair moved between Glenmore Park, Windsor, Forbes and St Mary’s with the cycle of abuse the only constant. When a jealous Goodrem saw a text message from another man he exploded in violence, grabbing the woman by the hair, dragging her before holding a machete against her throat saying “if you don’t obey me, I will slit your throat”.
On another occasion, the woman was blamed for police arresting Goodrem and was forced to apologise by stripping down in the garage and perfroming a sex act on him. The court also heard how Goodrem, when the pair visited family in Queensland, threw the woman’s mobile phone into a lake in a rage and never replaced it.
“I had no control over my life,” she told the court. “I felt like a caged animal. I was an object to him.”
After the relationship ended Goodrem pounced onto a new victim, tattooing her initials onto his face after their first date.
The man’s aggression and control quickly resurfaced when he thwarted the pregnant victim’s efforts to escape, both times following her unannounced and uninvited.
When the woman was in central NSW, Goodrem called out of the blue and said he had been dropped off in town and wanted to visit. Once he arrived he never left.
The pair later moved to another town together with Goodrem’s controlling abuse building to a point where he raped the woman as she lay on her own bed.
“I lived in fear with an invisible gun to my head,” she told the court.
Goodrem’s horrific abuse then moved to a Sydney woman he met on Tinder, where the tattooed man raped her on top of the washing machine despite being told “no” repeatedly.
The fourth victim Goodrem impregnated after two weeks and the woman said she was unsure how she felt about it when they met at Parramatta River, he became angry and abusive.
Another woman he raped for 20 minutes after taping her mouth with duct tape, who later escaped the clutches of Goodrem’s control by fleeing in the middle of the night.
The final victim, aged 18 at the time, met a 27-year-old Goodrem on Tinder and soon was ostracised from her family as a result.
The woman was driven to a property in the Blue Mountains, where she believed she was staying for the single night, where they stayed permanently.
In an ice-fuelled rage one night, Goodrem threatened the woman with a 20cm kitchen knife in each hand over a text message he had found on her phone from an ex-boyfriend. The message, sent a year earlier before Goodrem had met the woman, simply said “goodnight, love you”.
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Judge John Pickering condemned the systematic violent and emotional abuse of the women at the hands of Goodrem.
“(He) just moved from victim to victim, with the same pattern of behaviour, the same utter disrespect for women, the same controlling behaviour,” he said.
“There is no excuse for anything that Mr Goodrem has done.”
The judge also called out dating apps, such as Tinder, for the lack of protections it provides vulnerable people.
“It seems extraordinary to me that someone like Mr Goodrem was able to meet through Tinder, and they make money from it,” he said. “Those who meet people on Tinder have to be careful about who they are meeting because Tinder will show no responsibility.”
Goodrem, who pleaded guilty to 16 charges including sexual intercourse without consent, assault occasion actual bodily harm, common assault and intimidation, was sentenced to 20 years jail, with 13 years non-parole. He will be eligible for release in June 2033.