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Rapist Claims No Memory Of Attacks That Haunt Victims A MASKED serial rapist who brutally assaulted four women over five years has told the District Court he cannot remember any of the attacks. The victims of Trevor John Brooks, 37, say they remain "haunted" by the sight of him naked, except for a mask, breaking into their homes and violating them. Brooks pleaded guilty to the rapes committed in the northern suburbs between 1995 and 2000 - he was caught after DNA evidence linked him to the crimes. Yesterday, his lawyer said her client was "an automaton" - or robot-like - during the spree, fuelled by drugs and plagued by a total memory loss of the incidents. "He started using amphetamines and then rohypnol - he was working as an automaton and not remembering anything," Rosic Reed, for Brooks, said. "His behaviour then was completely dis-inhibited, he was not operating in his usual nature - which was an upstanding member of the community, a loving husband and father." Her claims were refuted by Judge David Smith, who on Wednesday heard two hours of victim impact statements. "You seriously cannot be putting to me that he is a fine, upstanding member of the community," Judge Smith said. "That is very hard to accept ... in each of these attacks there were conversations, there was premeditation, there was overwhelming evidence of his consciousness of what was happening. It is inexplicably very horrifying, and none of (your submissions) even approaches explaining how this could have happened." Brooks' co-accused in one of the rapes - 43-year-old James Trevor Birmingham - also claimed he had no memory of the incident in which he participated. He pleaded guilty to helping Brooks rape a 21 -year-old woman in her Salisbury North home while they wore "Ku Klux Klan" style masks. In a statement, Birmingham said hearing his victim's statement on Wednesday had left him feeling "disgusted" with himself. "I am truly remorseful and very, very sorry for the devastating impact of my actions on the victims of this offending," he said. Judge Smith will sentence the duo on a date to be set. Adelaide Advertiser (6-12-2003) Sean Fewster |
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Soul Ripped Apart By Serial Rapist A VICTIM of a masked serial rapist who plagued the northern suburbs for five years took her own life because he had "ripped apart her soul", the District Court has heard. The woman, who was recovering from open-heart surgery at the time, killed herself a year after she was attacked by Trevor John Brooks of Salisbury North. She was one of four women Brooks, 37, raped between 1995 and 2000, each time naked except for a mask. All of his victims were home alone. A fifth woman saved herself by fighting back with a pair of scissors and a bat. One victim, then aged 21, was raped by Brooks and another man, James Trevor Birmingham. Yesterday, she told the court she had spent seven years "haunted" by the memory of the duo standing in her bedroom wearing "Ku Klux Klan masks". In October, Brooks pleaded guilty to seven counts of rape and two of attempted rape. He was arrested after his carelessness allowed a sample of his DNA to be collected and traced. Birmingham, 43, joined Brooks in assaulting a 21-year-old woman at Salisbury North in March 1997, just five months before he was jailed for killing a man in a road smash. Yesterday, Judge David Smith heard victim impact statements, including a poem by the woman who committed suicide. In October 2000, Brooks raped her in an Elizabeth motel room until police arrived, scaring him off. In the process he left behind a sock from which his DNA profile was obtained. Twelve months later, just before she and her husband were due to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary, the woman committed suicide, having endured a long battle with her memories of the incident. "Terror, indescribable pain, my soul has been ripped apart; Tears fall like acid rain while blood drains from my heart," the poem reads. "The faceless shadow, rancid smell- mine forever more; His voice will haunt me till he rests in hell, his power too great to ignore". Throughout two hours of victim impact statements, Brooks sat hunched in the dock, avoiding harsh stares from the packed gallery. But he looked up, seemingly in shock, when confronted by his first victim, a woman known as 'Hayley'. Hayley was raped in her Elizabeth Park home in January 1995 while her husband and two sons were away on a fishing trip. "I needed to hear the word 'guilty' come out of your mouth, Mr Brooks," she said. "I do not want revenge, I want you to hear me say this: I may always be affected by your actions, but I'm free. "You, Mr Brooks, are not free." Judge Smith remanded both men for further submissions tomorrow. Adelaide Advertiser (4-12-2003) Sean Fewster |
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