Hayden Carl Skinner: Coffs Harbour aged care rape trial commences
A man accused of violently raping an elderly woman at a Mid-North Coast aged care facility will claim he “simply” was looking for valuables to pay a drug debt, his lawyer said in a trial.
A man accused of violently raping an elderly woman at a Mid-North Coast aged care facility will claim he “simply” was looking for valuables to pay a drug debt, his lawyer said in a trial.
Hayden Carl Skinner is on trial at Coffs Harbour District Court charged with aggravated sexual assault - break and enter with intent, stemming from an alleged attack in the early hours of New Year’s Day in 2024.
Skinner has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
His lawyer told Judge Michael McHugh on Monday that his client would claim he had entered the facility “simply to try and find something of value to take” to help him repay a drug debt.
But when the elderly woman woke up “she grabbed him” and a struggle took place and he left her room – but did not have sexual contact with her, his lawyer said.
Emergency services were called to the Catholic aged-care facility on Azalea Ave, not far from the Coffs Harbour CBD, at about 2.30am on Monday, January 1, 2024.
It was heard the woman was at the facility due to poor physical health and not cognitive ill-health; but that she has since passed away due to factors unrelated to the alleged incident.
The Crown will allege after Skinner climbed over a fence and entered her room, he removed her pants, underpants and incontinence pad and had “penetration to some extent” with the woman.
She made an “immediate complaint” to the registered nurse on duty and the paramedic who arrived just after 3am and later made two statements to police on January 1 and 3, it was heard in court.
The Crown lawyer also told the court Skinner’s DNA was found under the woman’s fingernail and on her labia and that there was bruising on her inner thighs resembling finger marks.
He became a person of interest “early on in the investigation” the Crown lawyer also said.
Taking the witness stand on Monday morning was the officer in charge of the investigation, who travelled up from Sydney’s Sex Crimes Squad when she was first alerted to the alleged incident.
The officer would later take an eight-page statement from the woman.
Also taking the stand was the registered overnight duty nurse who told the court he was alerted to the alleged incident when he heard the buzzer activated from the woman’s room and heard a “very frantic scream”.
When he responded he saw her in the hallway trying to get into a nearby friend’s room and saw her “only wearing a top with nothing under the waist”, the court heard.
When asked by the Crown lawyer what the woman said to him he responded:
“We have a good relationship. She ran towards my direction and grabbed my arm and she told me there was a man who came inside the room and raped her.”
The nurse also said that she “gave a description of the person wearing a stocking over his head with a hoodie over the top” and that he was a “big tall black man, well built” and had positioned her across the bed, put his hand over her mouth and tried to push her hand away from the buzzer.
Upon further questioning from the Crown, the nurse also told the court the woman said to him “he couldn’t get it in, because of my prolapse” and that was when she realised her sliding door was open she said “I forgot to lock the door, It’s my fault, I am very sorry.”
The judge-alone trial continues this week at Coffs Harbour District Court.
Got a news tip? Email: janine.watson@news.com.au
Originally published as Hayden Carl Skinner: Coffs Harbour aged care rape trial commences
