Kushan Palliyaguruge found guilty of raping woman he took from Orange Whip nightclub Ringwood

A young woman begged her rapist to let her go home to her mother after she was taken from a Ringwood nightclub.

Kushan Palliyaguruge raped a woman he took from Orange Whip Nightclub in Ringwood.

A man led an intoxicated young woman out of a Ringwood nightclub, then drove her to his house and raped her as she cried and called for her mum.

Kushan Palliyaguruge, 28, fronted the County Court on Thursday, having been found guilty of rape by a jury.

Palliyaguruge walked the teenager out of Orange Whip Nightclub about 2.30am on December 16, 2018 and helped her into his car.

He had only just met the woman, who had been sitting alone on a couch when a security guard went to check if she was all right

Palliyaguruge went up to the security guard and claimed the woman was his girlfriend, and the woman told the security guard he was her friend.

The security guard said the woman had “too much to drink” and Palliyaguruge said he would take her home, escorting her outside with his arm around her.

The woman later told police she didn’t remember leaving the nightclub but had thought she was getting into an Uber when she got into Palliyaguruge’s car.

She then remembered sitting behind the driver’s seat as he drove, while he reached around and assaulted her.

According to court documents, the woman then remembered crying and saying she wanted to go home, and Palliyaguruge responding, “We’ll quickly go to my house for a f**k”.

She then cried and asked for her mum and her phone — which he had.

Palliyaguruge then pulled over and assaulted her in the back seat before he pulled her into his house about 3.12am.

The woman remembered stumbling and not being able to see very well as he held her up and “dragged” her into the house.

He then raped her and she asked for her phone and purse back.

The woman called a friend when she got her phone and told them she had been raped before she went up to Palliyaguruge and asked, “Can I go home now?”

She cried and called for her mum as she got back in his car and he drove her home.

During the drive he tried to assault her, and she also vomited out the car window.

She didn’t get home until 4am and straight away told her mum what had happened.

At the hearing the victim told the court she had been left heartbroken by a man whose face she didn’t even remember.

It was heard she had gone on to suffer significant mental health issues, including PTSD and bulimia, and no longer drank alcohol, went for walks alone or trusted men.

The court heard Palliyaguruge had come to Australia from Sri Lanka in 2017 to study accounting and finance, but had changed to studying cookery.

His lawyer conceded it couldn’t be said that he was remorseful, but that he was “sorry for the situation he’s in and sorry for the victim”.

The court heard Palliyaguruge had experienced poor mental health but that he hadn’t been handed any formal diagnoses.

Judge Amanda Chambers said the material in Palliyaguruge in mitigation wasn’t strong, adjourning the matter so he could be assessed by the court for a psych report.

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