Warning: Graphic content
A 76-year-old woman was screaming in distress as she sought help following her alleged rape in an aged care home bed by a masked intruder, a nurse has told a court.
Hayden Carl Skinner, 31, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated sexual intercourse without consent against the elderly woman, who has since died in unrelated circumstances, at a nursing home at Coffs Harbour on the NSW North Coast.
Hayden Carl Skinner is accused of sexually assaulting a 76-year-old resident.Credit: Facebook
In the early hours of New Year’s Day last year, Skinner allegedly scaled the facility’s fence, walked through a courtyard and entered the woman’s room through a closed unlocked security door.
He is then accused of removing the woman’s pants and sexually assaulting her.
This was the case set out by Crown Prosecutor Brendan Campbell, SC, on day one of Skinner’s judge-alone trial in Coffs Harbour District Court on Monday.
Giving evidence, a registered nurse described hearing a “very frantic scream” from the hallway after the woman had buzzed for assistance.
He said he found the woman half-naked, trying to get into a fellow resident’s room.
“She was screaming and in distress,” he said.
“She directly ran towards my direction and grabbed my arm, and she told me there was a man who came inside her room and raped her”.
The nurse, the court heard, helped her back inside her room to find clothes. She told him she tried to scream “as hard as she could” but the man, who wore a hoodie with stockings on his head, covered her mouth and pushed her hand away from the buzzer.
He said she was crying, telling him she was “very sorry; it’s my fault – I forgot to lock the door”.
After calling for a colleague to come and comfort the woman, the nurse called Triple Zero and searched for the alleged assailant to no avail, the trial was told.
Skinner was arrested three days after the alleged attack.Credit: NSW Police
The court heard police and paramedics arrived a short time later and could not find the alleged intruder. The woman was taken to hospital.
Judge Michael McHugh, SC, heard the woman was in care due to poor physical health and not cognitive decline.
The Crown’s evidence was to be based largely on the woman’s police statements outlining complaints made to nurses and attending paramedics.
Skinner has pleaded not guilty to sexual intercourse without consent.Credit: Facebook
Other evidence would include her observed undressed state and alleged injuries, which included bruised inner thighs.
McHugh was told Skinner’s DNA was found on the woman’s underwear, body and bedroom wall. Skinner was quickly labelled a person of interest and arrested on January 4.
Public defender Peter Pearsall said, in his brief opening address, that Skinner did not dispute entering the nursing home or the woman’s room but was expected to testify that he was looking for valuables to help repay his drug debt.
As Skinner walked into the room, Pearsall said, the woman woke up, grabbed him and a struggle ensued before he “eventually escaped”.
“He, at no stage, attempted to have any sexual contact, and did not have sexual contact,” Pearsall said.
The first prosecution witness called was the officer-in-charge, Detective Senior Constable Elise Holden, from the NSW Police Sex Crimes Squad. Holden was one of the first responders, and she took the woman’s statements.
During Holden’s testimony, the court heard a motion-activated CCTV camera at the aged care home was not triggered during the incident because the sensors were not entirely reliable.
The court was shown police body-worn camera footage of an interaction captured at about 9:30pm on New Year’s Eve between Skinner and two police officers, who stopped him on the side of a road and said he seemed under the influence of substances.
Skinner told them he was homeless and had just had dinner at a nearby relative’s house, having not eaten for a week before.
One officer told him the relative’s address was near a “known drug spot”. He searched him, seized what he suspected to be marijuana and ordered him to leave the area.
The trial is expected to last 10 days and hear evidence from other aged care staff and residents, an attending paramedic, the complainant’s family and a forensic expert.
The trial continues.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Most Viewed in National
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
