Former Parkville youth worker Richard Sladek found guilty of raping Melbourne woman

A former Parkville Youth Justice worker involved at a local footy club in Melbourne’s west has gone down for savagely raping a woman.

Richard Sladek was found guilty of rape. Facebook.

A former Parkville youth worker who savagely raped a woman caused his frightened victim to attempt a desperate escape amid fears she would die.

Richard Sladek, 64, was sentenced in the County Court last Thursday to a minimum 37-month jail term after he was found guilty of rape.

Sladek, who was also found not guilty of attempted rape following February’s seven-day trial, assauted a woman in late-2018.

Sladek anally raped the victim while not wearing a condom after turning the woman on her stomach, the court heard.

The defence submitted the court “could not make any confident findings” to “what precisely happened” in the lead-up to the rape.

The victim had alleged “force and violence” occurred prior to the rape.

“I’m unable to reach a confident conclusion as to how events unfolded …,” Judge Nola Karapanagiotidis said.

“And particularly, I’m not satisfied, beyond a reasonable doubt, that you dragged or carried (the victim) to the bedroom.”

Judge Karapanagiotidis also recounted some of the victim’s evidence.

“I couldn’t breathe, I thought I was going die …,” the victim said.

“He was holding me down on the mattress … it was hurting, I was crying and screaming out … “ (Sladek) was like real creep-like and (saying) yeah baby, yeah, you want this, you want this …

“I was too worried about getting out of it and trying to breathe … I was bucking … I was kicking backwards, like a lot … I was trying to get out from under him.”

“(The victim’s) account of the offending is clearly one where she was protesting and struggling …,” Judge Karapanagiotidis said.

“I also take into account that a condom was not used at the time which placed (the victim) at risk of sexually transmitted disease or at least she feared this …”

The victim said, in a statement submitted to the court, she feels the offending “ruined my life”.

“My generally bubbly personality has changed and I’m not the same person as I was before this,” she said.

“I always had a bounce in my step but now it’s gone, I live the constant feeling of shame that I’m dirty, I hate what this has done to my life …

“I keep to myself so no one else can hurt me …”

Sladek, who has no priors, worked in the rail industry before gaining employment as a youth worker with the Department of Health and Human Services.

Sladek, who was in the role between 2001 and 2016, worked full-time at the Parkville Youth Justice Precinct.

Sladek, who left the Parkville role due to the “work conditions”, worked part-time for Vinnies but lost his job after he was charged in April 2020

Sladek, a father, later worked as a landscaper at a city council, the court was told.

The court heard Sladek, of Harkness, was involved in his local footy club and the local RSL at the time of his offending.

A reference from a former colleague, who said the charges were “out of character”, spoke well of Sladek’s “work ethic” and “commitment to family”.

Publication of Sladek’s conviction and sentence was delayed for a few days after the defence lodged a last-minute suppression order application.

Chris Hooper, for Sladek, made submissions on his failed application which was not supported by the Office of Public Prosecutions.

Mr Hooper submitted reporting could prejudice any future speculative retrial if Sladek’s makes an application to the Court of Appeal and that application is successful and a retrial is ordered.

Judge Karapanagiotidis denied Mr Hooper’s application for suppression and denied his alternate application for a pseudonym order.

Sladek was jailed for a maximum of five years and four months.

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