‘Mosman Rapist’ Boyd Kramer unmasked

Boyd Kramer was found guilty of horrifically raping a young woman in 2020. But he never saw the inside of a jail cell for an unbelievable reason.

EXCLUSIVE

When Madeline Lane fled a Mosman apartment in the early hours one Sunday in April 2020, she never anticipated the shocking messages she would later receive from the rapist who had attacked her moments earlier.

Boyd Kramer, who is being unmasked as the Mosman rapist for the first time today, had swiped right on Ms Lane a week earlier.

“I had just broken up with someone, so I was trying to get myself back out there, back dating,” she remembers.

Their conversation started off with “mundane” exchanges about pets, movies and work.

After a week, Kramer invited Ms Lane over to watch a movie and eat takeaway.

“It was during Covid lockdowns and public meet ups weren’t allowed. I had never gone to someone’s house I didn’t know,” says Ms Lane, who was raised a Christian in Wodonga, Victoria.

“So I made him send me a photo to make sure I wasn’t being catfished, and I made it crystal clear that we wouldn’t be having sex that night.”

Mosman rapist Boyd Kramer.

The former champion water polo player easily overpowered Madi.

In messages seen by news.com.au, Ms Lane wrote: “I’m happy to come over and chill but I don’t (jump) into bed with people, never have. So if you’re wanting a hook-up I’d rather be upfront, I’m not your girl and we wouldn’t be having sex tonight or when we catch up. So if that’s what you’re after I wouldn’t want to waste either of our time.”

Kramer stated that he “respected that” and “wouldn’t want it any other way”.

“He reassured me he preferred it that way, that he was a gentleman and he would never do anything to make me feel uncomfortable in any way,” Ms Lane recalls.

In further messages seen by news.com.au, the pair negotiated they would order takeaway, watch a movie, smoke a joint and sleep.

“We agreed in advance that because I was unwilling to drive my car after a joint for safety reasons I would stay over but there would be no sex,” she said.

When Ms Lane first arrived at Kramer’s apartment in the premium suburb, known for its luxurious living and stunning Sydney Harbour views, she didn’t pick up on any overt “warning signs”. The night progressed as planned, but once she went to bed, her world would change forever.

“We kissed and fooled around. He said, I’m going to get a condom. And I said, ‘why? We’re not having sex tonight, I’ve told you’. So he dropped the condoms and got back (in) bed and on top of me. I’m only five foot four (164.5cm),” she says.

The former champion water polo player easily overpowered her.

“I was stuck. I had been clear I didn’t want it to happen. I started trying to fight him off me … I started pushing out his chest and punching and trying to lift his pelvis off me … I was pleading … I don’t want this … Please get off me. I don’t want this …. But he wouldn’t listen to me.”

When the rape ended, Ms Lane decided her best chance of escape was to wait for Kramer to fall asleep so she could creep to her bag which held her car keys.

Eventually, outside, she burst into tears. From her car she messaged a friend.

Phone records prove that message was sent at 1.45am. In the message exchange, seen by news.com.au, she disclosed being raped.

Looking back, Kramer’s Tinder bio was a portentous warning sign.

Next, Ms Lane messaged national sexual violence counselling and support service 1800 RESPECT, via their “online chat” service, and text-typed to a counsellor named “Pamela”.

“(She) validated I’d been raped and convinced me to call the NSW rape crisis service. They reminded me that he didn’t wear a condom and my health was at risk because of that,” Ms Lane said.

Phone and internet records later confirmed these contacts.

So in the wee hours, Ms Lane drove herself to Royal North Shore Hospital where she underwent a forensic rape kit. Male DNA later confirmed as Boyd Kramer’s was found in her vagina.

By the time she left the hospital, the sun had risen. Exhausted, shocked and in a state of numb despair, Ms Lane headed home, showered and collapsed into sleep.

Kramer, meanwhile, was just waking up.

Boyd Kramer was found guilty.

But he never saw the inside of a jail cell.

When Ms Lane eventually woke, she was surprised to find her phone blowing up with messages from Kramer. The first one said “I hope you got home safely” and was signed off with a kiss, “x”.

Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy (RASARA) chief executive Dr Rachael Burgin said it was a common for offenders to send messages after a rape “to either gaslight, manipulate, or manage the victim-survivor, often by playing the nice guy”.

“It’s a known tactic, as it often confuses or destabilises the survivor, making them question their recollection of events,” Dr Burgin said.

KRAMER: “I hope you got home safely x”

KRAMER: “Are you okay?”

KRAMER: “I’m sorry”

KRAMER: “Can I make it up to you?”

KRAMER: “I’m very sorry about last night, I hope you can forgive me. I was very attracted to you … that’s not me. I hope you understand. I’m sorry girl”.

KRAMER: Missed call

KRAMER: Missed call

KRAMER: Missed call

At first, Ms Lane blamed herself for being there. But following an exhausting night spent undergoing an invasive rape kit in hospital, she was having none of it.

Eventually, she replied.

MADI: “I said no, I said no to sex the entire night, even before I got there. I never consented. What you did was wrong”.

Elsewhere in the message exchange, Kramer wrote “I was really into you” and “I got too playful” before stating he had been “dealing with really bad depression and anxiety” lately.

That made Ms Lane furious.

She responded: “I sympathise with your depression and anxiety. However, that is no excuse to have sex with me. I told you no before, I told you no during and I tried to push you off of me. I don’t think you can make it up to me, I hope you understand what you’ve actually done to me and that it wasn’t okay”.

Dr Burgin says the verbal tactics employed by Kramer are typical of rapists and sex offenders.

“You’ll note how he minimises responsibility, giving excuses and justifications like ‘I found you too attractive; I have depression; I got too playful’. It’s all rubbish. These are deliberate tactics and euphemisms intended to downplay the rape, shift responsibility and gaslight the victim.”

Madi was on the stand for a gruelling three days.

Madi went from being outgoing and adventurous to being unable to walk to the mailbox unaccompanied after the rape.

Speaking to news.com.au, Ms Lane said: “It just made me so upset because it was like, you raped me. You raped me here. I didn’t rape you. So how can you say you’re anxious about what happened here? I’m the one who can’t leave my house without holding a knife because I’m so scared of anyone in public.”

That was not the only change in Ms Lane’s behaviour following the rape. She had gone from being outgoing and adventurous – having visited more than 30 countries by age 27 – to being unable to walk to the mailbox unaccompanied.

In a heart-wrenching statement later read out in court, Ms Lane explained the full impact of the rape, describing how it infiltrated and infected every aspect of her life.

Read an extract of Madeline Lane’s victim impact statement here

Having reported the rape to police, Ms Lane now had to prepare for trial. It would prove as harrowing as the rape itself, with more twists and turns than anyone could predict.

‘The legal system was as traumatising as the rape itself’

In January 2022, more than 18 months after she first reported the rape by Boyd Kramer to police, Madeline Lane made her way to Sydney’s Downing Centre.

Immediately, she was struck by the imposing architecture.

“It’s so sterile. There is no comfort in that place. It’s not made at all with the victim in mind,” she said.

The Downing Centre, which sits in the heart of Sydney’s CBD, has no separate entrances, waiting areas or bathrooms for opposing parties. So in rape cases, victims and offenders are lumped in waiting bays together.

“It was extremely traumatising having to be there with him, having to wait outside with him. You’re literally sitting in a room with your perpetrator waiting to be let in,” Ms Lane said.

“He was allowed as many support people as he wanted. I was only allowed one support person plus my detective.

“It’s so overwhelming and intimidating.”

The trial would last 10 days, with Ms Lane on the stand for three.

News.com.au has obtained a full transcript of the trial.

In total Ms Lane was asked more than 1500 questions, and was labelled “dishonest” and “manipulative”, and accused of “lying” and “attention seeking”.

Her testimony spans more than 150 pages.

She was asked to discuss “doggy style”; what clothing she wore; if she wore underwear; the style of underwear; and even her “favourite sexual position”.

At multiple points, Kramer’s barrister, Margaret Cunneen, also suggested Ms Lane fabricated the rape either “for sympathy”, “attention” or as revenge for not orgasming.

Ms Lane was also asked repeatedly why she didn’t “try to leave” or do more to stop Kramer.

“It was extremely humiliating and traumatic,” she recalled.

“No one should have to go through what I went through on that stand.

“The rape was an attack on my body but the criminal process was an attack on my soul.”

Ms Cunneen also asked Ms Lane to stand up and physically re-enact how she had tried to slap Kramer during the rape for the jury.

“It was like reliving it, and I had to relive it over and over,” she said.

“When she made me stand up and act out how I tried to fight him off me during my rape, it was degrading.

“I mean, how is me saying ‘I tried to fight him off’ not enough? Why do they have to make me stand up ... while I’m crying and sobbing, and act out trying to fight someone off me while they’re raping me?”

According to the transcript, no one in the courtroom interjected or objected. Afterwards Ms Lane vomited in the court bathrooms.

Kramer, who was permitted to access Ms Lane’s phone and medical records, was also permitted to obtain her private counselling records, something she found incredibly invasive and traumatising.

Worse still, Kramer was able to read, word-for-word, the entire conversation Ms Lane had with 1800 RESPECT in the hours after escaping his apartment.

Madi described the court process as ‘an attack on my soul’. Picture: news.com.au

It was an exchange Ms Lane assumed had been confidential because it was with a Government funded counselling service. She had no idea they recorded all calls and chats (unless asked not to) and never expected the conversation would be read by anyone, let alone her rapist.

“That’s a very private and personal conversation which you assume is going to stay confidential. You are so vulnerable when you’re having it,” she said.

“You’re not in the right frame of mind immediately following a rape. I was in a state of shock. I was just blaming myself, so when the defence got that counselling transcript, they tried to use that against me and say, well, clearly I wasn’t raped because I blamed myself.”

‘I screamed and I cried’

It was just after 7pm on Valentine’s Day when Ms Lane got the verdict.

“I was in the supermarket when I got the call,” she said.

Kramer, who had protested his innocence the entire way, had been found guilty of sexual intercourse without consent.

The crime carries a maximum penalty of 14 years jail in NSW, with a standard non-parole period of seven years.

“I just cried. I screamed and I cried,” Ms Lane said.

A psychological review of Kramer placed him at moderate risk of reoffending given his lack of genuine remorse or insight into his behaviour.

“People kept asking how long I wanted (his jail term to be). I didn’t know. By sentencing, I had waited and lived with this for over two years, so I wanted him to be in there for at least that long,” she said.

“I found out later that the DPP expected him to get five years in jail.”

But in an incredible result, in June 2022, Judge John North handed down his sentence.

Kramer was ordered to perform 300 hours of community service, and would not spend a night behind bars.

“Australia says rape is the second most heinous crime after murder. So how can it not be jail?” Ms Lane asks in disbelief.

“He celebrated in front of me while I cried with my Detective … I don’t understand how that is possible in Australia.

“He had destroyed who I was as a person. The person in front of him by then wasn’t the same person who went to his apartment that night. I had to go on antidepressants. I couldn’t leave my house for months. I couldn’t even go for a walk without a friend or grocery shopping … So I expected jail.”

Ms Lane says she wonders what sentence a rapist who was less privileged, not from Mosman and did not have a wealthy family would have received.

“It was clear from the sentencing remarks (that) he viewed Boyd as an upstanding young man who just made a mistake in his life and he didn’t want to destroy his life based on that mistake,” she said.

“(But to me,) a mistake is running a red light. It’s leaving your lunch at home. It’s not forcibly putting your penis inside another human while you held them down and they fought for their life.

“That’s not a ‘mistake’. That is an act you do on purpose and you do with hatred.”

The sentencing remarks reminded Ms Lane of a school report card. It spoke of Kramer’s good character, and Judge North observed that: “At school (Kramer) enjoyed team sports including water polo where he was eventually selected in the State under 18s national squad.”

“I was just sitting there [wondering] what does him playing water polo in high school once upon a time have to do with him raping me 10 years later?” Ms Lane said.

“It’s a sentence for rape and [but the comments were] going back to his high school times when he played water polo for the state and for the nation. I didn’t understand.”

He is a convicted rapist. But he will not see a jail cell

Immediately, the prosecution decided they would appeal the leniency of the sentence.

A year later, the Appeal Court found that Judge John North had erred in his original punishment, which they labelled “manifestly inadequate”.

But in another blow, the appeal court ruled that despite the punishment being too soft, it was not willing to impose a new sentence because Kramer had finished his community service two weeks earlier, and it was considered punitive to resentence him given the passage of time.

“He didn’t even have to spend one night in jail,” Ms Lane said.

“I just felt defeated by that point. I had done everything right. I had done everything I was told to do to get justice and they never made it right, what had happened to me. So I was just heartbroken and angry. I was really angry.”

Kramer, by contrast, was in the mood to celebrate and was clearly feeling lucky.

The night after the appeal hearing, the avid poker player was photographed at the Mosman Club, smiling, with a wad of cash he had won.

News.com.au has found that Kramer is an experienced poker player, having won a number of local championships.

“He must have a strong poker face because he is a very convincing actor,” Ms Lane said.

“I watched him at the trial. He looked like a sad puppy dog, except when the judge left. Then I saw him break character and lose his temper. I think he gamed the system.”

Kramer is a skilled poker player and convincing actor who celebrated after the first appeal hearing. Picture: Facebook

‘As a nation we need to stand up now’

Today, Ms Lane is helping spearhead news.com.au’s exclusive #TakeTheStand campaign, which is calling on governments to introduce or expand vital, proven programs which make the criminal justice system less traumatic for victims, while not interfering with the rights of the accused.

“I’m angry with what the justice system put me through and things need to change for people who come after me,” Ms Lane said.

“It’s not good enough and I need to do everything in my power to make it better for the next survivor who comes forward.”

She said she wishes she had access to the Justice Navigator program, which is available in Victoria but not NSW.

“I just felt so in the dark about my own trial and my own assault. I felt like I had to chase for updates and then I would feel guilty for chasing for updates and bothering them because I understand how much they must have on their plates,” she said.

“I also got a whole new team one week before my trial. I just felt lost, honestly.

Madi was an outgoing young woman before the attack.

She had visited more than 30 countries by age 27.

“Having a Justice Navigator would have been a completely different experience for me. Having someone who’s just there for you to explain to you every step of the way, from the first police report on – who is there to emotionally hold my hand and talk me through the process and court system – it would have been a game changer.

“It would have taken so much of the unknown out of it and made the waiting easier.”

Ms Lane is also calling for better protection of counselling notes, better case management to reduce the three years of delays she suffered, and specialist court features to reduce trauma and improve justice outcomes.

“Courtrooms (should be) designed in a different way so they’re more friendly and inviting for survivors. A huge thing for me is having different entrances into the courtroom so you don’t run into your perpetrator before you’re even in the trial,” she said.

“The police need better training … Anyone who works in those specialist courts (should) have to have training so they understand trauma (and) what the survivors are going through, throughout the process.

“For me the justice, the police, the legal system was as traumatising as my rape and there’s no need for it.

“Australia has the ability to make this better. They have the ability to help survivors and make this a process that is less traumatising.

“As a nation we need to stand up now and say it’s not okay.

“We’re a first-world country. We have the ability to make this better.”

Nina Funnell is Walkley Award winning journalist and the creator of the Take the Stand campaign run in exclusive partnership with news.com.au. Contact: [e-mail]

Originally published as ‘Mosman Rapist’ Boyd Kramer unmasked