Merri Creek rapist Joel Russo pleads for lighter sentence

A serial rapist who subjected a female jogger to a terrifying 2.5-hour ordeal along the Merri Creek Trail says his jail sentence is manifestly excessive.

Joel Russo subjected his victim to a terrifying ordeal along the Merri Creek Trail.

A serial rapist who subjected a female jogger to a terrifying 2.5-hour ordeal along the Merri Creek Trail just four months after being released from jail for another violent sexual assault says his 20-year punishment is manifestly excessive.

Joel Russo argued in Victoria’s Court of Appeal on Tuesday that County Court judge Elizabeth Gaynor erred when sentencing him by putting too much emphasis on community protection.

Defence barrister Paul Smallwood conceded his client’s offending was “utterly dreadful” but said his deficits and deprived upbringing, as well as his guilty plea, should have got him a more lenient sentence.

“It’s just too much in my submission,” he said about the sentence.

“The sentencing judge has proceeded on the basis that because of the risk that this applicant presents, in particular to women, community protection dominated the sentencing task.

“The mitigation that ought to have flown, was not given the weight that it ought to have been given.”

Russo says his 20-year punishment is excessive. Picture: Sarah Matray

Russo was jailed for 20 years after the horrific attack.

Russo, 29, was jailed for 20 years and four months, with a non-parole period of 17 years, after he pleaded guilty to multiple offences, including two charges of rape, three charges of sexual assault and one charge of conduct endangering serious injury.

He had grabbed the woman from behind and dragged her into the creek in Melbourne’s north, threatening to kill her and holding her head under the water for 30 seconds, in December 2019.

“I’ll let you live if you let me f*** you,” he told the woman, before subjecting her to horrific sexual abuse.

He later told her: “Sorry for raping you. I’ve ruined your life, haven’t I?”

Mr Smallwood, in appealing Russo’s sentence, said his client’s life has been marked by “outrageously shocking circumstances”, beginning at birth when he entered a methadone withdrawal program, having been exposed to heroin in utero.

He was also physically and sexually abused throughout his upbringing while he was in and out of foster care, he said.

All of which, he said, had a profound impact on his cognitive and sociological development, and resulted in significant behavioural issues when at school.

Community members walk along the Merri Creek Trail as part of the Reclaim Our Merri Creek walk after the woman was attacked. Picture: Julian Smith

But Crown prosecutor Diana Piekusis, KC, said not only did Judge Gaynor not make an error, but the sentence was within range for such a “terrifying” and “humiliating” offence.

“This was a young woman in the prime of her life, studying, so much to look forward to, and there’s not a single aspect of her life that hasn’t been impacted by this offending,” she said.

“It’s not as though community protection has swamped the sentencing exercise or provided a roadblock.

“In some circumstances where a person such as the applicant poses the danger that he clearly does, it may well be that a proportionate sentence at the higher range is appropriate.

“This is one of those cases.”

She acknowledged Russo’s difficult upbringing, but said it also meant his prospects of rehabilitation and reform “can only be described as bleak”.

Ms Piekusis said Russo had committed a similar crime just five years earlier, in which he had been jailed for and was only released four months before offending again.

“(This) demonstrates in the most real way the need for community protection,” Ms Piekusis said.

Defence barrister Paul Smallwood conceded his client’s offending was “utterly dreadful”. Picture: Sarah Matray

Justice Phillip Priest, who is presiding over the appeal with Justice Terence Forrest, said Russo “presents a very significant danger to women in the community”.

He said it was “one of the worst” cases he had encountered, with the crimes occurring while Russo was on the sex offender’s register.

“The sex offenders program didn’t do much to curb his propensities,” Justice Priest said.

He said it would have been a “very difficult sentencing exercise” for the judge.

“If you look simply at the offending itself, without having regard to this man’s personal circumstances, (you could have) a very strong visceral reaction to it – you can think of all sorts of adjectives to attach to it … the offending was chilling, very disturbing,” he said.

“But then, of course, one looks at his personal circumstances, that could also invoke sympathy, perhaps pity. In the end it has to be an objective exercise.”

Justices Priest and Forrest will deliver judgment on Thursday.