A man who raped a woman in her Perth home 23 years ago while on parole for a similar offence in Victoria before murdering his estranged wife has been sentenced to more than 11 years in jail after DNA left at the scene was re-analysed.
Norman Frederick Hart, 56, is serving a life sentence in Bunbury Prison for murdering his former partner, who was the mother of three of his six children, in 2000.
The District Court of WA heard on Friday that Hart broke into a woman's Brunswick home and raped her with violence in 1988, and while out on parole in 1994, committed a strikingly similar crime in the Perth suburb of Bicton.
Hart got into the 33-year-old victim's home by removing window louvres and confronted her, wearing a balaclava and brandishing scissors and a vibrator, as she slept on the sofa in her lounge room.
He punched her face when she screamed and when it became clear he intended to rape her, the terrified woman persuaded him to wear a condom by saying she had a deadly disease.
While he attempted to remove items linking him to the attack including a doona, he still left DNA behind, which was stored by pathology scientists for 21 years after initial testing yielded no results.
In 2015, when science and technology had advanced significantly, it was analysed again, solving the crime described by Judge David Parry as terrible.
"Science has not let you get away with it," Judge Parry said.
The court heard the crime had a devastating effect on the woman, whom he threatened before leaving the house.
"I'll be watching," he said.
"I'll know if you call police. I'll come and finish you off. I'll kill you."
The court heard she lived with the thought for years the attacker could be someone she knew, had to move house, placed padlocks on bedroom doors, was so traumatised she couldn't work and still lived with the constant fear he would come back.
Judge Parry noted Hart's early life had been marred by the racist and misguided policies of the past as he was a member of the Stolen Generation, and he had been in and out of prison since his 20s.
But he accepted no responsibility for the offending and had even expressed resentment towards the victim
"You have shown absolutely no remorse for your crime," Judge Parry said.
Hart, who would have been eligible for parole in 2018, was given a jail term of 11 years and six months, starting immediately.
He will not be eligible for parole this time and must serve the full sentence.
Outside court, the woman told reporters she had seen through the case because she didn't want Hart to offend against anyone else, and praised the relentless work of prosecutors and police.
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