A drunken chef who broke into a sleeping Melbourne woman's house and raped her is a free man after a court found yesterday he should not be jailed for the terrifying attack. David Leslie Sims was given a wholly suspended jail term by a County Court judge who said he was a hard worker, unlikely to reoffend. "I wish you success in the future," Judge Tony Duckett told Sims in April as he suspended a 33-month jail term for three years. Sims had pleaded guilty to two counts of rape, indecent assault and aggravated burglary. Yesterday, his distraught victim wept as the Court of Appeal rejected a bid by the Director of Public Prosecutions to make Sims serve time in jail for his crimes.
The brave young woman, 22, told the Herald Sun her punishment outweighed her attacker's. "It's not a petty crime, and I wish that he had been punished accordingly," the woman said. "I think I probably have suffered more than he has - there's no difference between the two of us, and I didn't commit any crime." Last November, the woman fell asleep on her couch while reading and awakened to find Sims, 35, sexually assaulting her. She had forgotten to lock her door. Sims, of Frankston, had been working as a chef at Toorak restaurants Tribeca and Old Pepper, and had been drinking after finishing work. He had seen his sleeping victim through her window, and told police he had thought "that looks inviting" before entering uninvited and assaulting her as she slept.
The woman said the attack left her so scared and vulnerable she had had to quit her job, and she found herself isolated from friends who didn't understand her ordeal. "I'd always been a really happy, easygoing person, trusting and naive - that's the reason I fell asleep on the couch with the door unlocked," she said. "It's (a lesson) I wish I didn't have to learn this way." Yesterday Justices Frank Vincent and Geoff Eames found no error in Judge Duckett's sentence, saying his task had been a difficult one given Sims's remorse, good chances of rehabilitation and guilty plea. But Justice John Batt dissented, saying the sentence was so low as to shock the community and the "offensive, repulsive and intolerable" crime deserved immediate jail. Maggie Innes, from CASA (Centre Against Sexual Assault) House, said yesterday's sentence sent the wrong message. "It gives rapists a get-out-of-jail-free card," she said. "Given the courage it takes to report a rape and go through with the court proceedings, an outcome like this is outrageous." She encouraged victims to seek support, including from the Statewide Sexual Assault Crisis Line. |