A serial rapist spoke four words to a young woman before beating her unconscious in a suburban garden and brutally raping her.
Western Australian man Robert William Barry, 61, was jailed for seven and a half years on Friday after archived DNA evidence linked him to the 1984 rape of a 24-year-old woman in eastern Victoria.
He is already behind bars, having been convicted of other violent sex crimes in WA between 1991 and 1993.
Barry was unfazed as the judge handed down her sentence in the Victoria County Court on Friday, appearing via video in a dark green prison-issued sweater with his hands folded on the desk in front of him.
The court was told how the young Victorian woman, who cannot be identified, was ambushed in the dark and pinned to the ground after partying with friends at a bar in Traralgon on August 25, 1984.
The woman said she “froze” before Barry grabbed her and pinned her arms and forced her head away from him.
“Don't look at me,” he said.
Barry was unfazed as the judge handed down her sentence in the Victoria County Court on Friday
The court heard that during the struggle she tried to crawl away from Barry, who hit her head against a wooden garden sleeper, knocking her unconscious.
She woke up the next day wearing only her windbreaker and made her way to a nearby house where she was given a blanket and the resident, who was not named, called police.
The court heard she confided in her friends later that day and showed them the injuries that had left her 'unrecognisable', with bruised and swollen eyes, cuts around her mouth and difficulty speaking.
Police later archived swabs, microscope slides and blood samples taken from the woman while she was being treated at Central Gippsland Hospital, where the case remained a cold case for almost three decades.
Sentencing Barry, Judge Nola Karapanagiotidis said women should not have to fear “unprovoked brutality” or feel unsafe walking down the street.
“Such insults go against the most basic values of a civilized society where people should feel safe on the streets and women should not fear such unprovoked brutality,” she said.
The long-lasting and irreversible memory of the attack had left the woman depressed and anxious. Judge Karapanagiotidis added that her written statement submitted to the court was “powerful.”
“The worst part is that it will never go away, but I am determined to live my life,” the woman's statement said.
She was present on Friday to see the verdict handed down.
The court was told Barry was a father and grandfather who had grown up in an unstable home environment.
At the time of the crime he was known as Robert Johnston. Before changing his name, he described himself as a “terrible drunk” during his teenage years.
After moving to Washington with his young family, Barry raped a young woman and exposed himself in public in the early 1990s.
DNA evidence was crucial in the eventual arrest at his Canningvale home, where he gave police a 'interview without comment'.
Four of the seven and a half years Barry was sentenced to on Friday will be added to the 12-year sentence he received in 2017 for separate crimes in WA.
He will serve the remainder of his sentence in Victoria, with a non-parole period of 12 years and three months.
Judge Karapanagiotidis said there was 'no real explanation' for what Barry had done, adding she had no confidence in his eventual rehabilitation.
She said the incident warranted a “substantial prison sentence,” but not a sentence designed to be crushing.
Barry will be registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life.