Man sentenced to almost a decade behind bars for violent rape

A man has been sentenced to more than a decade in prison for his “entitled” sexual offending against a woman with tonsillitis.

A man will spend at least nine years behind bars for raping a woman who pleaded with him to leave her alone as she had tonsilitis.

Unemployed man Kane Glenn Johnson, 48, was sentenced in the County Court on Thursday over “degrading” offending at Dingley Village in December 2018.

He was found guilty of two charges of rape and one of recklessly causing injury during a trial earlier this year and was acquitted of all other charges.

Johnson, who grew up in Ballan, had launched into a tirade of degrading verbal abuse towards the woman, who was known to him, on December 14 and pressured her to have sex with him.

Feeling unsafe and afraid, the woman told him she had tonsillitis and repeatedly told him “no means no”.

But Johnson grabbed hold of the woman’s hair and roughly forced her to perform oral sex on him while she cried.

He then raped her twice.

Judge Martine Marich said the offending was “degrading” and had caused the woman “embarrassment, humiliation, terror, pain and enduring and chronic trauma”.

She referred to the woman’s victim impact statement, which described the “profound” impact of the crimes on all aspects of her life – her career, health, relationships and finances.

“There is nowhere in the world that is safe for me anymore,” the woman said.

She described living in constant distress and that she had “just been trying to survive” in the years since, but she felt as though a part of her had been “snapped off” and she could no longer trust anybody.

She said these feelings had been exacerbated by the “long, drawn-out court process”.

The court heard Johnson — who had previously worked as a butcher, landscaper, pastry chef and in an abattoir — also had a history of mental illness and substance abuse and a criminal record.

Judge Marich said the offending was motivated by a desire for sexual gratification and a desire to control and punish the woman in a place she was entitled to feel safe.

She accepted the prosecution’s argument that the rapes were “grave and serious examples” of his “entitled” sexual offending.

“She was sick and said no, but nonetheless you violated her by forcing your penis into her sore throat before raping her until you ejaculated,” she told Johnson.

“Your offences were accompanied by other acts of violence and control.”

In forming her sentence she considered his difficult childhood, the challenging circumstances in prison due to COVID and the delays in the trial for the same reasons.

Johnson was convicted and sentenced to a total of 13 years and eight months in prison, with a non-parole period of nine years and three months.

The three years and seven monthss spent in pre-sentence detention were reckoned as time served.

If this story has affected you, help is available by calling the Sexual Assault Crisis Line on 1800 806 292, 1800 RESPECT or Safe Steps on 1800 015 188