A grandmother of eight was raped by a home caregiver who was supposed to help her handicapped husband.
The rapist, Simon Brodanovic, 59, carried out a horrific attack on the 83-year-old woman after he took her husband out of the bedroom.
He initially accused the elderly woman of lying for revenge but confessed after the DNA results revealed the truth.
Confessed to committing rape in Victoria County Courthouse,
Brodanovic, from Springville, Melbourne, has been in the aged care industry for just over a year and has worked for home care company Omni-Care.
He attacked the victim while he was at her home caring for her husband – who suffers from a number of illnesses and uses a wheelchair.
The couple have been married for over 60 years and have lived in their home most of the time together.
The victim was her husband’s caretaker and the couple were reluctant to allow the caregivers to enter their home but they succumbed to their daughter’s wishes because they did not want to move to a specialized home.
Brodanovi entered the couple’s house and gave his victim’s husband a sponge bath.
He then offered a mother of three a massage after she stated that she needed her medication to help her legs.
After taking her husband to the living room, Brodanovi began massaging the woman in the bedroom.
Then Brodanovi licked his fingers and raped the woman as she begged him to stop.
He fled after the attack.
During his interrogation days later, he denied raping his victim and accused her of lying in retaliation for his refusal to rub lotion on her.
But the caregiver admitted his crimes after DNA analysis he left on his victim revealed that he had raped her.
In a statement read by the victim’s girls in court, the 83-year-old said she now fears all men and does not feel safe with any nurse, doctor, or taxi driver.
“I remember what happened, and sometimes I cry,” the statement said.
The woman’s daughters told the court that their mother was strong, sociable, and independent before the attack and took a leap in faith in accepting caregivers in her home.
Her husband has been placed in temporary care and she is struggling to take care of him.
Defense attorneys Ian Crisp said Brodanovic was “ashamed and sad” for what he had done.
He said that his client’s attack was an unplanned and opportunistic one, an attack from the “spur of the moment.”
But Judge Susan Paulin indicated that Prudanovi took his victim’s husband out of the room and licked his fingers.
Brodanovi is being held in custody and his verdict will be issued.
