SARAH is strong, but weak.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
She is ready to take control of her life, but at the same time afraid to have someone else lock a door.
Just the sound of a key turning sends her into a panic.
It was that sound, that one clicking sound of a door locking, that told her things were about to get worse.
It was daylight, but she was in darkness. Blindfolded, gagged and tied to a bed while her attacker locked the door and paced the house. He had gone through her handbag and removed the car keys.
Only moments before, he held a knife to her face and forced Sarah to the bedroom, telling her to do what he said or she would be killed.
Sarah begged him not to hurt her. She pleaded with him to think of her young son and promised to do what he asked, as long as he didn’t kill her.
She was ordered to the bed, and raped.
Afterwards, she was made to roll onto her stomach and had her wrists and ankles tied with electrical tape. “I didn’t know what he was going to do, he was really scaring me,’’ she said.
“He was pacing, saying ‘what the f... have I done?’”
Still in darkness and naked, the stocking in Sarah’s mouth had fallen loose so she pleaded with him to remove her blindfold.
He did – but it came with a warning that if she screamed, he would kill her.
“I tried to talk to him, but he was saying it could be a double homicide,’’ she said.
“I told him I didn’t want to die.’’
Her attacker then appeared with 30 pills. He counted them three times. Sarah feared he would force her to take them, but instead, he did.
She then started negotiating with him to release her. She asked if there was somewhere nice in Bendigo he would like to be taken to die.
It worked – he untied her and ordered her to get dressed.
As she tried to wash the blood from her body, the rapist grew “wobbly’’ from the drugs and fell onto the bed.
At that point, the locked door came back to Sarah. She knew that sound all too well and knew he would hear it if she tried to flee.
“I didn’t want him to hear it and I had trouble unlocking it, but then the screen door was locked, too,’’ she said.
But Sarah escaped. She fled the house and phoned triple-0. Shocked, traumatised and frantic, she ran to the closest street sign to tell them where she was.
“I was gagging and spitting and felt like I was going to be sick,’’ she said.
But that wasn’t the end of the nightmare.
It started all over last Friday when Sarah learnt this was not the first time her attacker had committed such a violent rape.
She had been told by police he had priors, but when she learnt in court what they were, she starting shaking uncontrollably.
“It just made me sick,’’ she said.
“When it was read out, I went numb.
“He is never going to be rehabilitated – next time he will probably kill someone and it won’t be himself.
“I’ve had to uproot my whole entire life and my son’s life because of him.
“I can’t concentrate, can’t think straight, can’t get my son to sport.
“I had no defence and no control – and that’s why I’m talking about this, because I want to take control of my life again.
“He should never get out.’’
And that’s the lock Sarah would like to hear. The lock that keeps her attacker permanently behind prison walls.