Bikeway rapist Luke Colless's sentence cut to 16 years on appeal

THE "bikeway rapist" who attacked 11 women in Brisbane and the Gold Coast has had his 25-year prison sentence cut by nearly a third.

THE "bikeway rapist" who attacked 11 women in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, unleashing fear and outrage, has had his 25-year prison sentence cut by nearly a third.

In a decision that will appal his victims, the Queensland Court of Appeal ruled that Luke Colless's sentence was manifestly excessive and ordered it be reduced to 16 years.

Lawyers for Colless, 33, had argued that sentencing judge Marshall Irwin failed to take into account mitigating factors, including the confessed rapist's guilty plea.

Many of the daylight attacks between April 2006 and July 2008 involved digital rape or other physical violence against women, aged 18 to 52, in parks and other public places. Most of the victims were exercising when attacked.

Colless's counsel Carl Heaton had argued at appeal the assaults were “not in the most violent category” of rape and except in two cases, where he punched women in the head, the violence was limited to that “necessary to overcome resistance”.

The Court of Appeal recognised the gravity of Colless's crimes and their impact on the victims.

But Judge Irwin should have given more weight to the “substantial” mitigating circumstances. These included the rapist's confession, which saved an even more extensive police investigation after he was finally confronted, and his “genuine” remorse.

Colless's plea of guilty had spared his victims the ordeal of giving evidence in court and facing cross-examination by defence counsel, forcing them to relive “their appalling experience”.

Without his confessions, convictions might not have been obtained on some of the charges, the Court of Appeal found.

“It is difficult to see how the learned (trial) judge made any adequate allowance for aggregation of the mitigating features,” said the appeals panel, including Queensland Chief Justice Paul de Jersey.

The church-going, married father of four led a double life after he embarked on his sadistic spree, sometimes attacking women on his way to work as a landscape gardener.

The sentence reduction means Colless will be eligible for parole after serving 12.8 years imprisonment.