Rockingham woman sexually assaulted in her own home ‘relieved’ perpetrator jailed almost two years later

A Rockingham woman who was sexually assaulted in her own home by a man she thought she was helping out by letting him stay the night has expressed her relief after he was sentenced to a 16-month jail term. Antoni Anzulovic was sentenced at Rockingham Magistrates Court on February 6 on one charge of unlawful and indecent assault. Anzulovic indecently assaulted the woman, aged in her 50s, after he called her late at night on March 16 in 2022 because he needed a place to stay. The 39-year-old is the son of the victim’s former neighbours, and Magistrate Linda Keane described the victim as acting as a “good samaritan” by offering him a place to stay. Anzulovic initially pleaded not guilty to the charge, and it went to trial on November 7 last year, before he changed his plea to guilty. During the sentencing, Anzulovic’s lawyer John Ling said his client’s memory of the incident “came back” during the trial causing him to change his plea. Mr Ling said Anzulovic had “too much to drink” on the night of the offence and was “regretful” and “sorry”. He told the court Anzulovic had apologised to the victim, but Ms Keane questioned how his apology would “fit with his repeated denials of the offence” and said it appeared he was “still in denial”. Mr Ling asked Ms Keane to impose a community based order, which Ms Keane described as being “so grossly disproportionate” to his offending that she would dismiss it immediately. Ms Keane said Anzulovic was wearing only a towel after coming to the victim’s house late at night and using her shower, after the victim had made them each a drink. When the victim got up to go to bed, she was “unsteady” on her feet when Anzulovic tried to kiss her which she did not reciprocate. “It was made clear to you that she was not interested in your sexual advances,” Ms Keane said. “She’d been having a friendly drink with you and she suddenly got up to leave. “...She was not well, she’d taken herself to bed. “She had not invited you, and you followed her in there.” Ms Keane noted there was evidence that “suggested the possibility” that the victim may have been drugged by Anzulovic before she went to bed, however she was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that this had occurred. However, Ms Keane said she accepted the victim’s evidence that something had happened to make her feel “quite unwell” before she went to bed. Ms Keane said the next thing the victim could remember was waking up in her bed without her clothes on. The magistrate described aspects of the case as being “somewhat odd”, including the victim accepting a call from her former neighbour’s adult son late at night and allowing him to come over. But said she found the victim was being “polite” by accommodating Anzulovic, and that her polite behaviour towards him had continued the next morning before he left her home, as she was unsure of what had happened. “The reality is that so many of us are conditioned to being polite,” Ms Keane said. “We don’t want to be rude, we don’t want people to feel bad even when they might be making us feel extraordinarily uncomfortable.” Ms Keane said the victim “didn’t understand what had gone on” until she had a shower and noticed she was sore and had bruises on her body. “(That) must have absolutely terrified (the victim) and traumatised her,” she said. Ms Keane said the victim may never know the “full extent” of what happened on the night, but she had found Anzulovic had sexually assaulted her, “in a serious and egregious manner”. The magistrate said a psychological report found Anzulovic had an attraction to older women and had suffered trauma and loss, as well as having ADHD, anxiety, depression and traits of PTSD. Ms Keane described Anzulovic’s offending as an “extremely serious sexual assault of a vulnerable woman who may have been unconscious” for his “own sexual gratification”. “Within a couple of days she had disposed of her bed, such was the trauma you exposed her to,” she said. Anzulovic was sentenced to 16 months in prison, and made eligible for parole. The victim of the attack spoke to the Sound Telegraph following the sentencing and said she was “relieved” Anzulovic had been jailed after almost two years and following the “degrading” experience of giving evidence during the trial. “As soon as (Ms Keane) said it, it just made me believe in the justice system again, I thought, yes, I have been heard,” she said. “The impact it’s had on me, and people around me... I was actually relieved, I thought ‘Thank God’. “It’s been worth the fight for two years.” The victim detailed the effect the assault had on her life in a victim impact statement provided to the court and seen by the Sound Telegraph, in which she described having to leave a well-paid job because of the impact on her mental health and the resulting impacting on her personal relationships. “To me it was like an explosion, like, there’s your life gone,” she said. “It was really, really hard for me to continue each day, I’d just wake up and go ‘Oh God, I’m still alive’. “But I knew that my children needed me and I just had to keep moving forward, and that’s what I’ve done all this time hoping that I would see the end of things. “It completely turned my world upside down.” She said the sentencing would now allow her to continue rebuilding her life and described the day of the sentencing as her own New Year’s Day. The victim said she hoped sharing her story would show other people who have also experienced sexual assault the importance of reporting the incident to police and encourage them to do the same. “I just want to hopefully encourage other people to come forward and tell their story,” she said. “(To) have the faith to come forward and say it, and stand in your truth. “Nobody’s got the right to do that to you — young, old, male, female. “I needed to stand up and show people that it shouldn’t be accepted.”