Search narrows after elderly woman raped twice in her own home more than 40 years ago

The family of an elderly woman who police believe was raped twice in her own home more than 40 years ago have issued an emotional statement.

The search for a man believed to have raped an 82-year-old woman twice inside her home has narrowed more than 40 years on.

Jessie Grace Lauder lived at her Mason St home in Newport in Melbourne’s southwest for 55 years. She lived there alone after she was widowed in 1977.

Ms Lauder was in bed when a man forced his way into the home via the back door about 10pm on September 22, 1981.

The man then confronted her in the bedroom while armed with a knife.

He took her to another room and sexually assaulted her and is believed to have looked through her purse before he climbed the back fence into a vacant lot on Oxford St.

Less than two years later, on July 6, 1983, Ms Lauder was in her loungeroom when a man forced his way through the front door about 9pm.

Jessie Grace Lauder was raped twice in her own home in 1981 and 1983. Picture: Victoria Police.

He then forced Ms Lauder into her kitchen, a move police believe was to make sure no one else was home at the time.

She was then taken back into the lounge room and sexually assaulted.

Police say the man “made reference” to the first sexual assault and warned Ms Lauder not to call the police.

Despite Ms Lauder’s death in 1993, Victoria Police sexual crime squad Detective Inspector Mark Burnett said there had been “enduring effects” on her family.

“Though Jessie is sadly no longer alive, these brutal attacks have had enduring effects on her family,” Inspector Burnett said.

Ms Lauder’s grandson, Malcolm, said he “couldn’t express (his) disgust” for the offender while speaking to the media on Tuesday.

“She’s five foot nothing, my grandma … and somebody has gone into the sanctuary of her own home, not once, but twice, where she should be the most protected that she should ever feel,” he said.

He said she was a “fiercely independent woman” who went back to live in her home after the first attack after briefly staying with him and his parents.

“She’s gonna go back and live in her house — it’s her house, and this person is not going to have her change her life,” he said.

“So she went back because she’ll be safe there, won’t she? She’ll be safe in her own home, she’ll be able to live her life, she’ll be able to be independent.

“She won’t have to be a burden on anybody, won’t be a burden on Mum and Dad. (She wanted) to live her own life and not take anything from anybody.”

Ms Lauder’s grandson, Malcolm, said he ‘couldn’t express (his) disgust’ for the offender while speaking to the media, supported by his son Andrew, on Tuesday. Picture: Victoria Police.

However he said she was forced to move out of her home following the second attack.

“After that attack, well, she was going to go back to the home … my mum said that you might be able to go back there, but I can never live with myself to let you go back there,” he said.

Inspector Burnett said Ms Lauder was “vulnerable” and “should have been safe in her own home”, while the offender has lived “these last 40 years with relative freedom and no repercussions yet for what he did”.

“It is as important as ever that the person responsible is brought to justice and I absolutely believe that with the right information, it can be solved. If someone has knowledge of this and has lived with it for over 40 years, now is the time to come forward,” he said.

Inspector Burnett said it was some of the “worst level of offending that (he’d) seen”.

“This offending is truly horrific when a woman in her older years should feel safe in her own home and is brutally attacked on one occasion and then within a two-year period on a second occasion, this is right up there with the worst level of offending that I’ve seen,” he said.

Investigators have begun to narrow down their search more than 40 years later amid advancements in DNA technology and information received over the years.

The offender, described as being aged between 20 and 30 at the time, is believed to have worn gloves, a beanie, work boots and items over his face during the incidents.

He was described as having a fair complexion, dark hair, an Australian accent and was about 175cm tall.

The man is believed to have lived in the area during the two-year period, and police said the offender would be known to others who lived in the area at the time.

Malcolm issued a message to the culprit and said having him caught would mean “a great deal to the family”, as well as let others know “you can’t get away with this brutality” and “lack of respect”.

“I was going to say do the decent thing, but obviously the person has no decency,” he said.

“ So I would think that after they’ve been free ... I would like to think that they’ve got a conscience somewhere, and they can look within themselves.

“They have no soul, but look within themselves to do what is decent, what is right.

“And maybe, maybe they carry a little bit of a burden — well, release that burden.”

Ms Lauder was 82 when the first sexual assault took place. Picture: Supplied

Inspector Burnett said investigators had been working “methodically” through information received and were keen to hear from anyone who lived on surrounding streets — including Mason, Johnston and Oxford and Lucius and Cunningham lanes — who remembered a man matching the description.

“Historical investigations are unique in that updates to science, methodology and legislation allow us to progress a case in a way that may not have been possible at the time of the incident, so receiving information even over 40 years later can still make an enormous difference,” he said.

“The advances in DNA technology, the advances in interviewing techniques and also other methodologies, has progressed to the point where there’s a number of cold cases that have made it back to active investigations, and we are confident that this matter and others can be solved by those advances.”

He said he believed the offender was “still at large” out in the community, but didn’t believe there were other incidents in that area during that period of time linked to the investigation.

However, he said police would keep an open mind.

Anyone with information has been urged to come forward, with a reward of $500,000 (to be paid at the discretion of the Chief Commissioner of Police for information leading to the apprehension and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the aggravated rape and rape) announced back in 2016.

The Director of Public Prosecutions may also consider indemnification from prosecution in return for information relating to the identity of the offender or offenders.