by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A man who “terrifyingly” attacked and tried to rape a stranger soon after she got off a bus in Eumemmerring has been jailed.
David Charles Andrews, 43, pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to sexual assault, assault with intent to commit a sexual offence, threatening to inflict serious injury and threatening to commit a sexual assault.
He was at the bus stop near Frawley and Olive roads about 3.15am on 17 December 2022 when the victim touched off to pick up a friend’s car before going to work in Dandenong.
Andrews approached her and said: “Hey, hey, what are you doing?
“Oh, I thought you were Jane.”
She walked off, avoiding eye contact.
Along a nearby and “isolated” walking track, she was speaking to her friend on her phone when Andrews tackled her down.
He pinned her to the ground, telling her: “If you yell and scream one more time, I’m going to slit your throat”.
He repeatedly told her he was going to rape her.
In fear, she stopped resisting.
As she lay pinned down in a foetal position, Andrews kissed her head, told her she was a “good girl” and then started “grinding up behind her”, Judge Michael Tinney said in sentencing on 30 August.
Her friend on the phone heard the threats and called triple-000 and then rang the victim back. Perhaps in response to the victim’s phone lighting up or a bystander approaching, a startled Andrews ran away.
Andrews was arrested the next day in Dandenong, which “took off the streets an obviously then-dangerous individual”. He was on bail and a good-behaviour bond at the time.
The victim didn’t submit an impact statement to the court due to not wanting to re-visit the events. At the time she stated to police: “If I have a moment to think about it, it triggers me.
“I don’t want to think about it.
“I hate the fact it happened. I hope he doesn’t harm another soul.”
Judge Tinney said he wasn’t satisfied that Andrews was under a drug-induced psychosis at the time. His loading up with ice, GHB and cannabis had been implicated with his deteriorating mental health.
During his “rational” and “targeted” offending, he intended to rape the victim and was “spelling out” to the victim the acts that he had wanted to inflict.
“The threat to inflict serious injury was not just a throwaway line,” Judge Tinney said.
The “terrifying”, random sexual offending against a complete stranger in a public place was a “sizeable escalation” from his lengthy list of previous crimes, the judge said.
“You should be ashamed of yourself. But for whatever reason you have virtually no remorse and very little insight here.”
Andrews was at “high” risk of future offending unless he addressed his attitude to drugs, the judge said.
He was jailed for seven years, and eligible for parole after five. His term included 255 days of pre-sentence detention.
