‘Funny hair’ rapist: Amith Warnakulasuriye jailed for ’degrading’ and brutal rape
A southeast serial sex predator – known by neighbours as the guy with “funny hair” – brutally raped a woman in her Doveton home. He attacked a second woman after he was granted bail.
South East
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A southeast serial sex predator known by neighbours as the man with “funny hair” will not see daylight until least 2028 after he brutally raped a woman several times in her own home.
Amith Warnakulasuriye, 33, was sentenced in the County Court on December 10 to a minimum eight years’ prison after he was found guilty of several charges including rape, sexual assault, causing injury and making a threat to kill.
Warnakulasuriye’s PTSD sob story about growing up in a war torn part of Sri Lanka barely made a dent in Judge Susan Pullen’s sentencing considerations.
The violent prowler played that card last December when he was sentenced to a minimum two years for attacking and threatening to kill a female Scout Leader with a knife in Noble Park in May 2017.
The judge who sentenced Warnakulasuriye did not know he had committed a violent sex attack just two months earlier.
Warnakulasuriye had lived near his victim but moved away before returning to rape her.
He went to the woman’s Doveton home while she was watching TV alone just before 9pm on March 13, 2017.
Warnakulasuriye knocked on the door and asked if he could come in to see if her partner was home.
He grabbed the woman and tried to kiss her when he was certain she was alone.
She booted him out but he returned 30 minutes later via an unlocked backdoor.
Warnakulasuriye told the woman he “was back” and “she shouldn’t have been like she was with him”.
Warnakulasuriye then raped the woman, threatening to kill her if she told anyone before he fled with her mobile phone.
The victim ran to her neighbours’ house and told them that she had been “raped by the guy with funny hair”.
Police arrested Warnakulasuriye at his Noble Park home in April 2017.
He denied any involvement saying he was home when the attack took place.
Police were able to link him to the attack through mobile phone data.
It’s not clear when Warnakulasuriye was bailed but he was placed in custody in May after the Scout Leader attack.
Judge Pullen said Warnakulasuriye was “not remorseful” after he maintained his denials through a trial.
The victim said her relationship ended after the attack and she was forced to leave Melbourne.
She now suffers depression, and anxiety and is no longer social.
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Judge Pullen said Warnakulasuriye’s “degrading” attack was “most serious and disturbing”.
She said Warnakulasuriye inflicted “significant and sustained” violence on his victim.
Judge Pullen also said a 2018 report which found Warnakulasuriye had a “low risk” of violent reoffending was “problematic”.
She also highlighted a 2017 report which found no evidence Warnakulasuriye suffered a psychotic illness.
Warnakulasuriye sat motionless as Judge Pullen sent him down for a maximum 11 years’ prison with a non-parole period of eight years.
Warnakulasuriye, who had spent zero days in custody at the time of sentencing, will most likely not be deported when released.