An Uber Eats driver allegedly responsible for the rape and assault of two teenage women 33 years ago has been released on bail as details of the horrific alleged attacks were aired in court.
Kevin Combes, 54, was arrested and charged by police on Wednesday after investigative genetic genealogy techniques allegedly linked him to the sexual assault of a 17-year-old woman in Kalgoorlie in 1991 and a 19-year-old woman in Perth CBD in 1990.
Police allege the 19-year-old victim was leaving a bar on Barrack Street just after midnight in June 1990 when she was grabbed and taken into a dark alleyway where a knife was pressed against her throat.
She was told to take off her clothes and lie on her stomach before she was raped.
Police allege Combes, who was 20 years old at the time, then said to the woman “if you scream I’ll kill you” as she was trying to negotiate with him to let her go.
Police allege Combes, who is now a married father of seven, then raped the woman before letting her go.
She reported the crime but police struggled to find her attacker until DNA collected by them on the day of the attack was allegedly connected to Combes recently, leading to his arrest.
Police also linked him to a second sex assault that took place in Kalgoorlie in February 1991, eight months after the Perth attack.
They say Combes got a lift from a 17-year-old girl before he forced her into the boot of the car at knifepoint and then drove her to a secluded area in Boulder where he raped her.
Combes applied for bail at Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday where it was revealed he had a past conviction for violent offending.
His lawyer, however, claimed he was not a flight risk, was living on a disability pension and had just started a job in traffic control.
He was also an Uber Eats driver, she said, which his family relied on financially.
The court was also told Combes had a spinal disability that would mean he would struggle to clean himself in prison.
Perth Magistrate Belinda Coleman told Combes the seven charges he is facing were “extremely serious” and that she had been informed there was a strong prosecution case against him due to the forensic evidence linking him to the assaults.
“However you are an innocent person until proven guilty,” she said.
He was granted bail with conditions that he stay away from the complainants.
“If you make an attempt to contact these women directly or through social media, you will immediately be arrested,” she said.
Combes will be back before the court on August 22.