Gregory Challenger found guilty of 1986 Lorne Rape

A Geelong County Court jury has delivered its verdict on the Lorne 1986 cold case rape.

A BANNOCKBURN man was today found guilty of Lorne’s 1986 New Year’s Day rape.

A Geelong County Court jury found Gregory John Challenger guilty of three counts of aggravated rape for the brutal attack on a Geelong woman on a Lorne beach on January 1, 1986.

The 56-year-old was found not guilty of one lesser charge of attempted aggravated rape, and

showed no emotion when the 12-person jury delivered its verdict after a trial that ran for nearly three weeks.

He will tonight spend his first night in custody for the crime after Judge Liz Gaynor refused his application for bail.

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Gregory Challenger leaves court.

The trial lasted almost three weeks. During it the jury heard:

NEW technology linked Challenger to the crime in 2016, matching samples taken from the victim’s clothing the day she was attacked;

POLICE secretly recorded their arrest of the accused man for the crime (listen to the recording at geelongadvertiser.com.au); and,

THE victim immediately identified an old photo of Challenger as the man who raped her when police showed her a board of 12 different mugshots in 2016.

Challenger was 23 years old when he raped the victim at a Lorne beach on New Year’s Day 1986.

He was arrested and charged three decades later — in March 2016 — after a DNA match was made linking him to a sample taken from the victim’s clothing.

Prosecutors told the jury the woman was sitting on the beach about 2am with a male friend when they noticed they were being watched by a group of men.

The picture of Gregory John Challenger shown in court as part of a historic 1986 rape case in Lorne.

Mr Challenger then approached the woman, told her to “shut up” and “be quiet” before raping her.

The prosecution argument was largely reliant on DNA evidence found on the victim’s jumper.

During his closing address to the jury this week defence barrister Len Hartnett said it was possible Mr Challenger’s DNA came into contact with the clothing at a Geelong West laboratory in February 1986.

“What we say is the prosecution can’t rule out accidental transfer (of DNA),” Mr Hartnett said.

“The standards in 1986 — when DNA wasn’t even around — can’t possibly compare to the standards of today.

“It was a different regime then.”

Crown prosecutor Andrew Moore pre-empted the defence’s claim, telling jurors that the argument was not grounded in ­reality.

“That is so far-fetched, it’s fanciful,” Mr Moore said.

He said forensic experts at the time took strict measures to prevent contamination, includ­ing sealing parts of the woman’s clothing in bags and later freezing them for 24 years.

Challenger, who the court heard has complex medical conditions, was remanded in custody.

In considering his bail application Judge Gaynor said granting bail in the circumstances would be “highly unusual”.

Challenger will be sentenced at a later date.

Originally published as Gregory Challenger found guilty of 1986 Lorne Rape