Rapist shows no remorse for string of violent sexual attacks
A VICTORIAN man has been jailed after committing monstrous rapes and keeping one captive in an old mine while he was abusing her.
A VICTORIAN man dubbed a “monster” for showing no remorse after committing a string of violent sexual assaults has been jailed for 16 years for raping two teenagers.
Anthony James Pitt, 59, on Wednesday was sentenced to 16 and half years in prison, with a non-parole period of 13 years, for the rape of two teenagers in the late 1980s.
Pitt was found guilty in August of the attack in 1987 and 1988.
The victims, then aged 15 and 17, were set upon in Mildura and Frankston as they were walking on the street and dragged into bushes.
According to the Herald Sun, he was jailed for 17 years over a separate incident in December 1999 for luring a Ballarat schoolgirl, 16, into an underground dungeon and repeatedly raping her over 19 hours in November 1998.
Police interviewed his housemates and discovered he had fantasised about imprisoning a woman in a cave.
They found the man and the girl- who had been handcuffed, gagged and bound- after crawling through 70 metres of tunnels in Black Hill.
He was jailed in 1990 for locking another teenage girl in the boot of his car.
It was not until 2013 that Pitt’s DNA was linked to forensic samples taken from the victims’ clothing after cold-case detectives reopened the investigations.
One of the teens suffered a fractured cheekbone after Pitt punched her in the face.
“The seriousness of this offending cannot be overstated,” Judge Mark Dean said on Wednesday.
“Each incident was opportunistic, brazen and accompanied by serious violence over and above the sexual violence you inflicted on your victims.”
Anthony Pitt sentenced to maximum 16.5 years behind bars over rape of two girls dating back to the 1980s. #9News https://t.co/194bpIiQkg
— Nine News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) November 2, 2016
Pitt was charged with the girls’ rapes in 2015 and at his trial in August this year he claimed the semen found in the victims’ underwear was the result of a consensual sex act.
“You have exhibited no remorse whatsoever for your offending,” Judge Dean said.
Pitt was on bail for obscene exposure when he attacked the first teen — whom he also threatened to kill — in Mildura in 1987.
After raping the second teen in Frankston in 1988 Pitt raped a 16-year-old girl whom he held captive in a disused Ballarat mine in November 1998.
“You continued to prey on defenceless young women in order to satisfy your violent and predatory sexual desires,” the judge said when sentencing the man.
Pitt served a 17-year jail sentence for the Ballarat rape and was still in custody when he was charged with the Mildura and Frankston rapes.
He previously went by the name Lesley Norman Pitt, and was also jailed in 1992 for the sexual penetration of a child under the age of 16 involving a teen who was babysitting his kids.
Two psychiatrists and a psychologist believe Pitt is at high risk of sexual reoffending, the court was told on Wednesday.
“It’s not possible to be certain that ageing will reduce the risk of your offending until you are so frail that it becomes impossible,” Judge Dean said, adding Pitt’s prospects of rehabilitation were “negligible”.
Additional reporting by the Herald Sun.