Inner West Rapist Darren Kennedy jailed after sexually assaulting four women around Sydney

A man once dubbed the “rapist of the inner west” will spend the next decade behind bars after family DNA linked him to a series of attacks in the mid-2000s.

Darren Kennedy was sentenced to 13 years’ non-parole for sexually assaulting four women in a Sydney suburb between December 2003 and March 2004.

The 54-year-old watched via video link as Judge Jennie Girdham handed down her sentence at Downing Center District Court on Friday.

He pleaded guilty in May 2023 to 13 charges, including four counts of sexual intercourse without consent, two counts of taking a person to obtain an advantage, namely his sexual gratification and offenses of indecent assault.

Judge Girdham included a separate offense of possession of child pornographic material in her sentence after 174 videos and 43 images were found on his phone following his arrest.

In December 2003, Kennedy carried out his first attack on a 43-year-old woman at her home in Croydon.

The victim woke up while he was in her bedroom. He wore gloves, held a pillow over his face and shined a flashlight in her eyes.

She was told to ‘just be quiet’, ‘don’t look at him’ and to lift her nightgown.

His victim was forced to perform oral sex in a sitting room, with Kennedy ordering her to “count to twenty and not tell anyone.” Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Less than a month later, in January 2004, Kennedy found his next victim as she walked home after a night out in Bondi, in Sydney’s east.

He grabbed the 23-year-old and dragged her into the alley, pinning her to the ground.

The young woman screamed and struggled before Kennedy put a hand over her mouth and told her to “shut up.”

Kennedy then raped the woman and fled the scene, telling her “not to look back.”

Kennedy’s third attack took place on a 17-year-old schoolgirl at her family home in Bexley, also in January 2004.

She woke up when he climbed through her bedroom window before caressing her face.

He put a gloved hand over her mouth and told her to be quiet and look away.

In a desperate attempt to warn her family, the teen asked Kennedy if she could go to the bathroom.

The rapist then forced her to climb out of her bedroom window and told her to go to the toilet outside.

Kennedy then pushed her against a brick wall as she shouted for help.

A 51-year-old woman was Kennedy’s fourth victim.

In March 2004, the woman was packing her luggage in the early morning hours for a flight to her son’s wedding.

The rapist waited outside the woman’s home in Marrickville, and once outside he approached her and told her he ‘just wanted to touch her breasts’.

He then raped her twice and pulled her nightgown over her head.

After the sickening attack, Kennedy thanked her victim and told her to count to 100 as he left.

He added she “didn’t want to spoil her son’s wedding by telling anyone,” the court heard.

In March 2004, a police strike force was established to investigate attacks spanning a range of suburbs, including Croydon and Marrickville in Sydney’s west and Bondi in the east.

But the investigation was suspended in 2005 after they were unable to track down the perpetrator.

The case was reopened in February 2020 and a forensic investigation in November 2021 traced the attacks to Kennedy through a family DNA match with material recovered from various crime scenes, including on a torch, a rug and the clothing of the victims.

Kennedy was arrested at his home five days later and has been in custody since.

All the victims, who ranged in age from 17 to 51, were vulnerable and unable to defend themselves, Judge Girdham said.

They were left “humiliated and degraded” by the attacks, she added.

“The crime was abhorrent, cruel and inhumane,” Judge Girdham said.

“It is an impossible task to represent the actual damage caused (in a sentence).”

In victim impact statements, some women variously described their struggles with post-traumatic stress and continued problems with trusting people twenty years later.

In a letter to the court, Kennedy apologized to the victims, describing his own actions as “deplorable and monstrous” and adding that his thoughts were “ragged and broken” at the time of the offences.

Judge Girdham noted that Kennedy struggled to cope with his own traumatic history of child abuse and that his previous experiences distorted his views on sexuality.

Kennedy was sentenced to a maximum of seventeen years and four months in prison. He will be eligible for parole in November 2034.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

National Sexual Abuse and Redressal Support Service 1800 211 028

Lifeline 13 11 14

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