Notorious sex offender Brendan Freeman’s latest court bid

A notorious Tasmanian sex offender who brutally raped and bashed a woman in an unoccupied house seeks to overturn a dangerous criminal declaration.

A notorious Tasmanian sex offender, Brendan James Freeman, has appeared in a Hobart courtroom seeking to overturn a dangerous criminal declaration. Picture: istock

A notorious Tasmanian sex offender, who was jailed indefinitely in 2004 after brutally raping and bashing a 43-year-old woman in an unoccupied house, has appeared in a Hobart courtroom seeking to overturn a dangerous criminal declaration.

Now 53, Brendan James Freeman was a 31-year-old parolee in August 2003 when he met a woman at a Launceston hotel, before assaulting her several hours later as she tried to leave a nearby residential unit.

During a sentencing hearing in 2004, then-Supreme Court Justice Ewan Crawford said Freeman had inflicted substantial physical injuries on the woman during the attack, including facial bruising, broken teeth, and a suspected broken jaw.

Justice Crawford said the victim had also suffered considerable psychological injury, with her life dominated by fear, nightmares, and social isolation in the year following the violent ordeal.

In a record of priors that Justice Crawford labelled “chilling”, the court heard that in NSW in 1993, Freeman had bashed a woman who had withdrawn consent during intercourse, leaving her with a bleeding nose as she ran into the street to seek help.

Two years later, he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old intellectually-disabled girl, with the child’s mother finding him in her daughter’s bedroom.

Soon after his release from prison, Freeman came to Tasmania where he committed an aggravated assault and rape in 1997 for which he was sentenced to five years in prison, where he remained until April 2003 after having breached terms of his NSW parole.

Justice Crawford said he was satisfied Freeman was a constant danger to the community, and particularly to women, saying a dangerous criminal declaration was the only course reasonably open to the court.

Freeman appeared before Justice Stephen Estcourt on Monday, following an ongoing process to overturn the declaration which began in the Supreme Court last November.

Justice Estcourt adjourned the case, and ordered Freeman return to court on October 27.

Originally published as Notorious sex offender Brendan Freeman’s latest court bid