Troy Johnson, ghillie suit clad child rapist, sentenced to 28 years

A ghillie-suit clad mechanic has been sentenced for raping a 12-year-old girl. After the attack, he bragged about what he had done.

A pig hunter who attacked and raped a 12-year-old girl on the New South Wales Central Coast chillingy bragged to a mate about the horror attack.

Today Troy Stephen Johnson was jailed for 28 years following the attack on the 12-year-old as well as the grooming and sexual abuse of another girl, aged 11.

Dressed in a camouflage ghillie suit, Johnson, 33, dragged the schoolgirl into bushes and raped her. Even with parole he will not be eligible to leave jail for at least 21 years.

A judge today said Johnson, a mechanic, had engaged in “truly evil conduct”.

He pleaded guilty to seven charges in February including a further three sex offences against the 11-year-old girl. The married father of three committed the horrific attack against the older child in May 2017.

Camo rapist Troy Johnson who attacked a 12-year-old girl on her way to school at Narara in May, 2017 while dressed in a military-style Ghillie suit.

Troy Johnson will go to prison for 28 years.

At Gosford Courthouse, Judge David Wilson lifted the suppression order on naming Johnson.

The girl “was truly a victim of the detestable conduct of the perverted offender” he said.

The 12-year-old had been walking to school along a bush track when she looked back and saw Johnson — who had told a friend he fantasised about raping somebody — suddenly emerge from the bushes.

Dressed in a leafy ghillie suit, Johnson dragged her into nearby bushland, tied her to a tree and sexually assaulted her for almost an hour.

Johnson, holding a knife in his right hand, told the girl, ‘‘Shhh, don’t scream. Don’t scream or I’ll have to hurt you.” When he eventually cut the girl loose, she ran crying to school. She was hysterical.

Troy Johnson bragged to mates about the attack.

Troy Johnson attacked the girl on the NSW Central Coast.

CHILLING BOAST

The judge said after raping the girl, Johnson called a friend and told him, “Hey dude, you’ll never guess what I did”.

Johnson boasted about how he had tied up a schoolgirl and sexually assaulted her, and talked about he had used cable ties, duct tape, a knife and camouflage clothing.

Last week, his now 14-year-old victim read an impact statement in court.

The judge ordered Johnson to open his eyes and look at the young victim as she spoke and to face the reality of his “hideous offending”.

The judge praised her “enormous courage” for facing her attacker.

ARREST

Johnson was arrested for the attack in August 2017.

Court documents state that during a police interview he complained of feeling unwell and was allowed to administer insulin for his Type 1 diabetes.

However his condition appeared to worsen and he refused treatment from paramedics.

“You could die if you refuse treatment,” one paramedic told Johnson.

“That’s the whole point,” he replied.

Treatment was forcibly administered to Johnson.

A search of his home recovered numerous items of camouflaged clothing and a number of knives.

A laptop in his home was found to contain photos of schoolgirls walking along a road. There were also images of him wearing a ghillie suit.

Troy Johnson, the mask found at his home and the path where the girl was grabbed.

The day of the attack, Johnson’s manager remembered him arriving for work more than three hours late and uncommonly dishevelled with wet patches on his clothes despite it being a dry day.

Johnson told him he had been in a road rage incident and fallen down an embankment into some water.

Judge Wilson pointed out Johnson had stalked the schoolgirl for weeks before carrying out his abhorrent plan to rape her.

The judge believed Johnson had lied to his psychiatrist after his arrest when he claimed the attack was out of character, he did not know why he had done it and blamed the devil.

The judge rejected Johnson’s claims he deserved a lesser sentence because he had been of good character before the rape after it was discovered he had hidden a video camera in his family home since 2009 to film unsuspecting women in the bathroom.

Judge Wilson had warned him that because he was too cowardly to enter the witness box to express remorse and admit his pedophilic behaviour, and because of the devastating impact it had had on his victim, his jail sentence would be harsh.

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