Man jailed for brutal rape told pregnant victim 'you have ruined my life'

Pregnant and face down in her own blood, a Qld woman thought “I’m going to die tonight”. Her amazing story of survival and message for her rapist can now be revealed. *Distressing.

A woman has bravely delivered a message to her violent rapist.

A brave survivor has faced her violent rapist telling him “I am now so far from the girl you broke”, as he was handed a decade-long jail term.

The man put his victim through hell, unleashing a brutal, vicious and degrading rape attack on his pregnant former partner after she refused him sex and he learned she was carrying another man’s child.

He then blamed her for his vile assault, telling her “what did you do to make me do this to you? You have ruined my life. I am going to jail”, Mackay District Court heard.

Hours after he repeatedly violated her, when she was covered in bruises and suffering a broken eye socket, he asked her if they could stay together, begging her not to tell her family stating, “we can fix this, I can clean up the mess, you don’t have to tell anyone, I can hide it”.

Judge Joshua Trevino KC said the man’s selfish comments expressing concern for his own situation, “showed a callous disregard for the (woman) and represent a breathtaking example of victim blaming”.

The horror sexual assault occurred in the early hours of the morning in 2023 when the man arrived, unannounced and unwelcomed at her Mackay home – they had separated and were still intimate, but when he had asked earlier that night to come over, she had told him no.

When he asked for sex, she also told him no and he became annoyed and picked a fight, which turned into a terrifying assault.

“I remember cowering under him and thinking to myself, ‘I’m going to die here tonight’,” the woman said in a powerful victim impact statement she read aloud to her attacker.

While her children, including the son she shared with the man, were asleep in a bed in her home he spat in her face, punched holes in her walls before turning his fists on her.

The court heard he violently strangled her twice including when she was face down in her own blood and repeatedly punched her in the head and face.

“As you reigned blows down on her she tried to cover her face with her arms and hands but you told her to put her hands down and take it,” Judge Trevino said.

“You demanded essentially that she submit to your vicious assault of her.”

When she tried to get away, he dragged her back and locked her inside and violently anally raped her for five minutes, before then forcing himself on her “in a most demeaning and humiliating manner”.

He begged her not to tell her family before raping her a third time and then sexually assaulting her as he fell asleep, all while she was seriously injured.

Judge Trevino said there was an “extraordinary level of brutal violence” that was “protracted and unrelenting” and also involved degrading verbal abuse, threats to kill her, and other attempts at emotional manipulation and blackmail the following day.

“I will spend the rest of my life in fear of him,” the woman said, describing how she had worked hard to recover from his attack.

“I refuse to live my life as a victim of you.
“I have worked hard to rebuild myself and I am now so far from the girl that you broke.

“I walk away from this courtroom leaving the darkness with you.
“I am stronger than you will ever know and you will never take that from me.”
The man, now 30 who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to three counts of rape, two counts each of strangulation and common assault and one count each of sexual assault, assault causing bodily harm, deprivation of liberty and wilful damage.

Crown prosecutor Monique Sheppard pushed for 10-12 years jail because of the violence used in the rape, and while defence barrister Scott McLennan agreed that was the range he argued it should be reduced to 8.5-nine years for his client.

Mr McLennan said his client had made concrete steps towards his rehabilitation including counselling, had shown immediate remorse and had no like history so it was out of character

“Or a demonstration of his true character,” Judge Trevino said, rejecting submissions there was immediate remorse for the victim.

He also did not accept arguments there was a causal link between a depression diagnosis and the offending.

Judge Trevino said it was a “brutally violent and sustained attack on your ex-partner in her own home” and while her children were asleep and jailed the man for 10 years.

As a result, he must serve at least eight years before he can be eligible for parole. He has already spent 207 days in presentence custody, which is declarable.

Originally published as Man jailed for brutal rape told pregnant victim 'you have ruined my life'