Troy Benning: Calls for harsher sentence for Parap rapist

‘How can that be justified?’: A man who broke into a Parap home and repeatedly raped a woman could walk free in just two years.

A MOTHER’s nightmare became a reality when an ice-frenzied man broke into her Parap home beat and raped her while her children slept.

Wearing a plastic shopping bag over his head and brandishing a pair of scissors Troy Benning broke into the home just after midnight on April 1, 2020.

The 25-year-old smashed a glass picture frame over the mother’s head, hit her with a stool, punched and kicked her to the head before repeatedly raping her until she cried out to her 10-year-old daughter for help.

Before he left Benning told the woman: “If you call the police, I will come back and kill you”.

In less than two years the convicted rapist may walk free once again.

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Victoria Engel appeared before the Supreme Court on Thursday calling Benning’s seven-year conviction with a four year non-parole period “manifestly inadequate”.

Ms Engel asked Justices Stephen Southwood, Judith Kelly and Peter Barr to consider resentencing Benning for the “prolonged, degrading and terrifying assault”.

Detectives from Sex Crimes Unit searched for Troy Nathan Benning following the sex assault in Parap on April 1. Picture: NT Police

The court heard the woman was baking in her Parap unit kitchen while her 10-year-old daughter and four-year-old son were sleeping when the savage attack began.

Benning climbed a downpipe armed with a pair of scissors to reach her balcony before demanding to know if she had money, and who was in the house.

The 25-year-old started pushing her towards the bedroom, still brandishing the scissors.

Benning forced her to the ground and pummelled her with a small wooden stool when she tried to fight back

He smashed a glass picture frame over her head, kicked her in the nose and threw punches at her head as she struggled against him.

The mother begged for her life as he pushed her towards the bedroom.

The court heard she was dizzy from the assault when Benning started cutting her shorts to pull them off.

Benning used the scissors to cut his plastic bag disguise to create a makeshift condom before attempting to rape her.

When she tried to get up he punched her again, then forced her to perform oral sex

“She was wondering how she was going to survive this,” Justice Sonia Brownhill said during his Feburary sentencing hearing.

Using all of her strength she kneed him in the groin before running out of the bedroom. Benning slammed the door on her arm as she tried to escape and she screamed out for her 10-year-old daughter for help.

Before he left Benning grabbed the woman’s shorts, underwear, stool, the plastic bag and scissors.

Her daughter found her mother “distressed, dishevelled, with a bloody nose and no pants on”.

The court heard the Parap mother suffered from PTSD and lasting physical injuries from the attack.

“She was terrified both for her own life but also terrified you would hurt her children,” Justice Brownhill said.

“She said that she has experienced nightmares of the offending ever since, has cried herself to sleep.”

“(The family) felt like you had taken their freedom away.”

Benning pleaded guilty to all changes, including unlawful entry, rape, attempted rape, depravation of liberty, threats to kill, theft, and assault causing serious harm.

In February he was sentenced to seven years in prison for the 10 offences.

But Ms Engels said the “inexplicable” sentence meant Benning would be eligible for parole by April 2024.

She said a number of serious offences were sentenced concurrently.

Judge Judith Kelly. Picture Julianne Osborne

Ms Engels argued the original sentence treated each instance of robbery, assault, rape, and threats to kill as isolated incidents, which did not consider the cumulative horror of the attack.

“We end up with a total sentence of two years … That is an offence that carries life imprisonment,” Ms Engels said.

“And the sentence is two years? For a serious example of home invasion, detention, all that premeditation. and the maximum is life. How can that be justified?” Justice Kelly asked.

“It is a very lenient sentence, particularly in relation to (the unlawful entry),” Defence representative Ambrith Abayasekara acknowledged.

Mr Abayasekara said there were many factors that went into Justice Brownhill’s sentence, including his client’s young age, “deprived and traumatic background”, mental health issues, criminal history, and his rehabilitation prospects.

Mr Abayasekara said despite the Parap rape, Benning was “not a sexual predator”.

“It’s plain that he’s at a high risk of property offending... but no such findings were made (for sexual reoffending),” he said.

“(But) his past history, he has to be considered a high risk of personal violence against women, with nine priors,” Justice Kelly said.

The Supreme Court Justices said they would consider the application to resentence Benning and reserved their decision to a later date.