Bobby Johnson sentenced on five counts of rape in Cairns District Court

A woman who got into a taxi outside Gilligan’s to get home safely after a night out was “effectively abducted” and raped by two men, Cairns District Court heard. Warning: Graphic

Bobby Johnson has been sentenced to ten years in prison. Picture: File photo

A man convicted of raping a woman five times was sentenced to ten years in prison with a serious violent offender declaration, meaning he will have to serve 80 per cent of his sentence before he is eligible for parole, in Cairns District Court on Friday.

The court heard Bobby Johnson, 33, was a taxi driver on May 5, 2016, when a woman got into his cab outside Gilligan’s at 3am, gave him $20 and her address.

Johnson’s mate Jacob Lahai jumped into the back seat of the cab.

The woman, 32, questioned what he was doing, but then fell asleep.

Johnson took her back to the taxi depot, were he and Lahai put the woman in Johnson’s car.

They drove to a secluded spot in Parramatta Park and dragged the woman out of the car, Crown Prosecutor Stephanie Williams told the court.

They ripped her clothes off, grabbed her by the hair, forced her on to the car bonnet, pinning her arms down, and Johnson raped her anally and vaginally before forcing her to her knees and raping her orally.

Lahai pushed her back onto the car bonnet and raped her vaginally and anally while Johnson held her arms pinned down above her head, and they left her in a drain wearing nothing but her bra.

Bobby Johnson was sentenced to ten years in prison after he was convicted of raping a woman. Picture: Anna Rogers

The woman staggered to a phone booth and called police.

It took three years for the men to be charged, in 2019, and both lied to police, but Ms Williams said the DNA, CCTV and GPS locations of the taxi meant the crown case against Johnson was strong.

Ms Williams said the woman was called “a black bitch” and her money was taken.

She said Johnson was the principal offender on three counts and party to two counts of rape.

Defence barrister Tim Grau said Johnson was a refugee from Liberia who had witnessed “the unthinkable and unimaginable” during civil war, had a “likely diagnosis” of PTSD, his judgment and decision-making was impaired and the crime was impulsive and poorly thought out.

Ms Williams challenged these assertions, saying there was planning to take her to the depot and put her in Johnson’s car, where there was no GPS tracking, and she was taken to a location where they would not likely be interrupted.

She said Johnson was married but slept with other women until his wife immigrated to Australia in 2019.

Ms Williams said Johnson waited for Lahai’s trial and appeal to be finished before he decided to plead guilty.

Sentencing Johnson, Judge Dean Morzone KC said it was a particularly serious and egregious case and the acts were especially degrading as the woman was penetrated in multiple places.

He said they “effectively abducted her”.

Judge Morzone said he was not sure a symptom of PTSD was to rape a woman.

“She screamed for you to stop,” he said.

“She was raped roughly and painfully.

“It was offending of the most violent kind … profound disrespect against this woman, she was vulnerable, intoxicated and alone.”

Jacob Lahai was sentenced in 2020 to nine years in prison. Picture: Anna Rogers

Judge Morzone said his sentence would have been 11 years or more but for mitigating circumstances.

Johnson was sentenced to 10 years each for three rapes and nine years each for the two other rapes, to be served concurrently.

The court heard Johnson denied the offending and intended to plead not guilty and a trial began on September 1, 2020, but he pleaded guilty to one of the five counts, the jury was discharged and the matter remained listed for trial.

Johnson then entered guilty pleas on indictment in October 2020.

Ms Williams said his pleas were neither early nor timely.

Lahai pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape at a trial in 2020, where Cairns District Court heard he lied to police and said he was never in the taxi, but was confronted with CCTV footage showing otherwise.

He said he was dropped off at Creedy St but the geolocation data of the taxi showed it did not go to Creedy St.

“Bobby dropped me off and that was it,” Mr Lahai said.

He told the interviewing detectives he was “100 per cent sure” he did not travel in Mr Johnson’s private vehicle that night.

The jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to nine years in prison with a serious violence offence declaration, but Lahai appealed against the sentence on the grounds it was manifestly excessive.

In May 2023, his appeal was thrown out.

Originally published as Bobby Johnson sentenced on five counts of rape in Cairns District Court