Woman tells court she ‘felt like dying’ after being raped near West Footscray train station

A woman who was raped by a stranger near a Melbourne train station has told a court she was “physically and mentally destroyed” by the terrifying attack.

A woman has come face to face with her rapist in court after a terrifying attack at West Footscray Station.

A woman who was raped by a stranger near a Melbourne train station says she was left physically and mentally “destroyed” by the sickening assault.

Gokmen Goktogan, 29, fronted the County Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to raping the woman, who was then 19-years-old, in bushes near West Footscray train station in 2020.

During the pre-sentence hearing, the woman came face-to-face with her rapist and bravely read out a victim impact statement describing her trauma from the vile attack.

“I was so focused on a phone call that I was having at that time … I wasn’t so focused on him being there until he approached me and started touching me,” she said.

“I didn’t know what to do, I was completely paralysed.”

“I was scared and just felt like dying after he touched me all over my legs and thighs, I was terrified the whole time.”

Two years on from the incident, the woman said she still struggled to go outside and had contemplated taking her own life.

“I was physically and mentally destroyed after the assault,” she said.

“I felt like the world was very cruel.”

Goktogan, who arrived in Australia on a temporary partner visa in 2019, sat in the dock and stared down as a translator interpreted the woman’s statement to him in Turkish.

On June 28, 2020, Goktogan was captured on CCTV following the woman along Cross St near West Footscray station before he approached her while she waited a bus stop.

Goktogan asked the woman if she was OK before putting his arm around her and grabbing her buttocks.

The woman, who was shaking in fear, told him she was “fine” and was waiting for a bus.

But Goktogan said “come on, come on” and pressured the woman to walk down a path to an area where trees shielded them from view.

He pushed her further into the bushes while the woman was crying and saying “stop, stop, please stop”.

Goktogan proceeded to rape her for 20 to 30 minutes.

“You’re OK, you’re OK,” the rapist said as he let her go.

The woman ran and boarded a bus before she called her mother and told her what had happened.

On July 10 that year, Goktogan handed himself in after police appealed to the public for help in identifying the man captured on CCTV.

He told investigators he kissed the woman at the bus stop but didn’t rape her.

Goktogan later entered a guilty plea to the charge.

His lawyer, Paul Smallwood, told the court his client knew he would be jailed for many years and inevitably faced deportation upon his release which would separate him from his wife and young son.

Judge Gerard Mullaly will sentence Goktogan on September 20.