An aboriginal man has been jailed for at least eight years for raping an elderly woman in her bed in an aged care home in NSW.
Hayden Carl Skinner, 31, broke into the facility in Coffs Harbour on January 1, 2024, and sexually assaulted the 76-year-old, who was left traumatised and has since died of unrelated causes.
He denied raping the woman during a judge-only trial, claiming she attacked him while he was in her room stealing valuables to pay off a drug debt, but was found guilty of one count of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent in December last year.
NSW District Court Judge Michael McHugh on Tuesday sentenced Skinner to 12 years’ jail with a non-parole period of eight years, and called the attack “a serious example of aggravated sexual assault”, ABC News reported.
“Particularly in the age differential and his persistence in trying to penetrate this old lady … would have been very distressing, and she would have been very fearful,” he said in sentencing.
“For the first three days after the offence, she referred to her emotional state [as] crying ‘buckets’. This did have a profound impact on her, which is what you would expect given the nature of offending.”
He also noted Skinner had shown no remorse, and that a “lack of insight” into his offending made his prospects for rehabilitation “guarded”.
Skinner’s defence lawyer argued the rape was an “uncharacteristic aberration” in her client’s long criminal history, and said a psychologist had determined his risk of sexual reoffending was moderate to low.
The court also heard Skinner was a drug addict, had PTSD from a traumatic childhood where he was sexually abused, was homeless, and had mental health and intellectual issues.
Skinner’s trial heard his victim was seen screaming in the hallway of the aged care while naked from the waist down after the attack, and told a nurse she had been raped by a masked man.
She was taken to hospital for bruising to her inner thighs and provided statements to police, and Skinner’s DNA was found on her genitals and clothing, and under her fingernails.
Skinner, who posted about being proudly aboriginal on social media and called on other indigenous people to get vaccinated against Covid, was not required to testify but chose to anyway.
He told the court his victim got him in a “bear hug”, grabbed him by the genitals and that he grabbed her by the inner thighs to free himself from her before running away.
Public defender Peter Pearsall argued the victim was not a truthful or credible witness, and claimed she had shown a “racial attitude” by describing her attacker as “very, very black”, and in a statement where she said she didn’t want to go inside a police station when black people were there.
The lawyer also highlighted “suggested inconsistencies” in her statements, including that Skinner was clean shaven and wearing jeans, while he was bearded and arrested in board shorts.
But Judge McHugh found Skinner’s version of events was unconvincing, rejected the possibility that DNA could have ended up on the victim’s genitals by accidental transfer, and that the trauma of sexual assault could have affected her memory of the attack.
“It stretches credulity beyond breaking point that this elderly woman, suffering a number of ailments, should be able to hold him down,” he said.
“I am unable to accept she was sitting in bed without her incontinence pad and in rejecting that, I find his evidence was part of a deliberate lie to explain away how his DNA was found on her clothes.
“This was an otherwise intelligent woman who I found to be not cognitively impaired in any way. In all circumstances, I find beyond reasonable doubt the accused knew she did not consent, in regards to her protestations.”
“I am also satisfied as to aggravation that he broke in with the intention of sexual assault, as he must have formed that view on entering that room, given he assaulted her immediately.”
Header image: Left, Hayden Carl Skinner (Facebook). Right, during his arrest (NSW Police).
The post Aboriginal man jailed for 8 years for raping woman, 76, in nursing home first appeared on The Noticer.
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