A Unanderra disability pensioner who brutally beat and raped a woman inside his home after she declined his sexual advances has been jailed for at least five years, despite suffering from chronic ill-health.
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Judge Warwick Hunt accepted that time behind bars would be more onerous for George William Hodges than most other prisoners given his debilitating illnesses, which include chronic arthritis, epilepsy, an enlarged prostate, bowel incontinence, limited cognition, chronic airway disease, diabetes and hypertension.
Judge Hunt was twice forced to halt sentencing proceedings in Wollongong District Court on Friday while Hodges experienced epileptic fits inside the courtroom.
“He has complex medical needs and a complex regime of medications….he takes 11 medications daily, including four for epilepsy,” Judge Hunt said.
“Jail will be more challenging for him, however there is no evidence before me that the justice system can’t deal with his condition.
“It’s inevitable [he will receive] a lengthy period of imprisonment, not withstanding the significant issues to do with his health, which I accept will deteriorate during his time in custody.”
An agreed statement of facts tendered to the court on Friday reveals the victim was left badly bloody and bruised from her encounter with Hodges, whom she had considered a friend.
The court heard the pair regularly exchanged greetings as the victim walked past Hodges’ house and she accepted his invitation for a drink in early January 2016.
He asked her to be his girlfriend at the time but she declined.
The woman accepted another drinks invitation from Hodges on the afternoon of February 27.
He again asked her to be his girlfriend, however when she rejected him for a second time, Hodges accosted her in the bathroom, repeatedly punching her in the face before dragging her into a bedroom by her hair.
He then subjected her to a brutal, sustained assault involving repeated acts of physical and sexual violence.
At one stage Hodges ripped the woman’s bra off – it was later discovered in the garbage bin in his kitchen.
The woman told police Hodges let her leave about 8pm and she returned home to her daughter, who called an ambulance when she saw her mother was bruised and bleeding.
Doctors at Wollongong Hospital later identified 12 individual injuries to the woman’s head and neck and a further 20 injuries to her body, including evidence of sexual trauma.
Hodges was subsequently arrested but denied the assault, claiming the victim had left his house without injury that night.
He also claimed to be gay and told detectives he had been taking medication to stop his sexual desire.
He maintained his innocence for two years until the eve of his trial, when he agreed to plead guilty to charges of inflicting actual bodily harm with intent to have sexual intercourse and having aggravated sexual intercourse without consent in a plea deal struck with prosecutors.
Hodges will be eligible to apply for release on parole in August 2022.
