by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A driver who picked up a heavily-intoxicated stranger in his car and raped her on the way to her Noble Park home in 2017 has been jailed for up to seven years.
Karl Bacash, now 60, of Bulleen, pleaded his innocence but was found guilty by a Victorian County Court jury of two counts of rape as well as sexual assault.
Bacash lured the then-26-year-old woman who had been out at the Corner Hotel, Richmond in the early hours of 9 April 2017.
On the way to her home, he stopped his Nissan X-Trail 4WD in a service lane off Princes Highway for more than an hour.
During that time, he “callously” penetrated the “isolated” and “vulnerable” victim in the passenger seat while she was either asleep, unconscious or too intoxicated to give consent, Judge Martine Marich said on 26 November.
Bacash committed acts of “significant predation” while he was in a position of a “quasi” carer for her.
On arrival home, she asked if he was an Uber driver and he replied he was not.
Bacash obtained the victim’s phone number by calling himself with her phone, and the next weekend texted her: “Are you out and about?”.
The victim didn’t recognise the number, and blocked two further call attempts from Bacash.
Judge Marich noted that despite this, Bacash had told police three years later he had no recollection of the victim or calling or texting her.
He has continued to deny making sexual contact with her.
Bacash told police that he’d often drive people home at night from clubs and bars if they needed help. He’d record women’s phone numbers and later send them texts from his mobile, he said.
He also admitted to having consensual sex with passengers at times. With some girls who are drunk they wake up and do not remember if it was consensual, he told police.
The victim initially had no memory of getting home that night.
She later showed the bruises on her inner thighs and described pain in her groin to family, friends and a GP.
Reluctant to go to police, she formally reported the allegations nearly two years later. She identified Bacash on a police photo board.
Formerly a travel business owner, Bacash became a full-time carer of his mother in 2019. He had always lived in his parents’ home and didn’t have any long-term partners.
After a police search of the home, he was charged and pleaded guilty to possessing a stolen credit card and five ampules of prescribed morphine sulphate injections.
Judge Marich noted Bacash had left a “legacy of trauma” on the victim, including her ‘reliving’ the assaults when giving evidence at trial.
As a result of the trial, she suffered renewed panic attacks, anxiety and PTSD, spent large sums on counselling and osteopathy and was forced her to take time off work.
In her “powerful” and “articulate” victim impact statement, she described becoming terrified of taxis or Ubers or crowded places, failing crucial university units and being too afraid to go on dates or start a relationship.
Judge Marich noted Bacash’s lack of prior convictions, long trial delay, positive references from family and friends as well as his health issues.
She said Bacash had “perhaps good” rehabilitation prospects but no insight into his offending.
“There is a strange lack of ability in you to understand and appreciate that driving heavily-intoxicated women home where they are not previously known to you may be seen as predatory.”
With “some misgivings”, Judge Marich declined to put Bacash on the sexual offenders register.
Bacash was jailed up to seven years, with a non-parole period of four years and 10 months.
His term includes 298 days in pre-sentence custody.
