Efram Caspersz fronts court over repeated rape of a woman
A wheelchair-bound man suffering Parkinson’s whose claim that he couldn’t repeatedly rape and sexually assault a woman given his ill-health has been rejected in court.
South East
Don't miss out on the headlines from South East . Followed categories will be added to My News.
A wheelchair-bound man with Parkinson’s found guilty by a jury of repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting a woman has been jailed for more than nine years.
Berwick man Efram Caspersz, 55, appeared for sentencing in the County Court on Wednesday after guilty verdicts on five charges of rape and two of sexual assault were returned early this year.
He committed the offences on three occasions between November 2019 and January 2020. On one occasion, he told the victim he just wanted to touch her skin and on another occasion, he asked for a hug which she rejected.
Caspersz was sentenced to nine years and two months’ imprisonment and ordered to serve a minimum of four years and 10 months.
Judge Marcus Dempsey said despite the jury rejecting Caspersz’s claim that he couldn’t offend in the way alleged given his Parkinson’s disease, he still denied his crimes.
Although him being mostly wheelchair-bound that would make prison difficult for him, the judge said a substantial term of jail was the only outcome.
The degree of control and manipulation and the repetitive nature of his crimes raised the level of culpability, Judge Dempsey said.
Caspersz was diagnosed with Parkinson’s when he was 40, forcing him to quit his carpentry business.
In her victim impact statement, the complainant slammed Caspersz as “not man enough to own the truth” about his disgusting crimes which she said has had a profound and devastating effect on her.
She described herself as “scared, untrusting” since Caspersz’s sex attacks.
“You violated me repeatedly … I am not even remotely the person I was prior,” she said in the statement.
She described her attacker as showing “no remorse” and having “thought only of yourself”.
“The hell you have made me endure because you are not man enough to own the truth,” she said.
