A depraved sex offender who broke into a 90-year-old woman’s home and attempted to rape her committed the crime out of sexual frustration, a court heard.
Shane Huici, 26, will remain behind bars after appearing at the Melbourne County Court on Thursday, where Judge Pardeep Tiwana sentenced him to nine years in prison with a six-year non-parole period for the “appalling” crime.
The court heard Huici, then 23, was walking home from a 21st birthday party in Geelong’s business district, 77km southwest of Melbourne, when he burst into the St Albans Park nursing home in the city. elderly woman around 4.30am on August 15, 2021.
The 90-year-old woman woke up to find Huici inside her room before he pinned her to her bed and attempted to kiss and orally rape her.
“By entering by removing a mosquito net and opening a window, you committed the most terrifying and deplorable act of sexual abuse against an elderly and frail resident who was sleeping in her bed,” Judge Tiwana said.
Shane Huici (pictured) pleaded guilty to the attempted rape of a 90-year-old woman and was sentenced to nine years in prison.
The woman managed to activate her duress alarm during the horrific attack, causing Huici to flee.
Shortly before Huici was tried for rape, he pleaded guilty to attempted rape, aggravated burglary, theft and reckless injury.
During his sentencing on Thursday, Judge Tiwana told the court that sexual frustration was a major factor in Huici’s offending.
“Although he has had a number of short-term relationships with women of similar age, he has struggled to maintain intimacy and has never had a stable romantic relationship,” Judge Tiwana said.
Referring to a psychological report, he noted: “Frustration at the lack of a satisfactory intimate connection caused you to express this frustration by committing the attempted rape.”
The court also heard Huici was “a moderate to high risk of further sexual offending”.
The court heard Huici (centre) had “struggled with intimacy and had never had a stable romantic relationship”.
Judge Tiwana noted that, despite admitting his guilt, he had shown “no real evidence of any contrition.”
“You have not openly and sincerely acknowledged your offending,” Judge Tiwana told Huici.
Huici maintained that he did not try to rape the woman and told a psychologist that he “pleaded guilty following advice.”
“Despite expressing some remorse, he immediately qualified it by minimizing his offending,” Judge Tiwana said.
“I hope you can understand the impact of your heinous offense.”
The court heard Huici was brought up in a “loving family” environment but turned to drink and drugs to cope with his long-term anxiety problems.
He also developed a gambling addiction to “relieve boredom.” Sometimes it cost her his entire salary.
The psychological report found that Huici was an “immature” man for his age who had a “limited intellect” and a “rudimentary level” of understanding of his addictions (pictured, the nursing home where the elderly woman was attacked)
At the time of the attack on the elderly woman, Huici regularly consumed six alcoholic drinks during the week and “considerably more” on weekends.
However, he managed to hide his addictions from his family, who, according to Judge Tiwana, were “oblivious” to his “deep-rooted problems.”
He noted that the attempted rape would have seemed “out of the blue” to his relatives and dismissed glowing references to his character as not offering a “complete picture” of Huici.
The psychological report also found that Huici was an “immature” man for his age who had a “limited intellect” and a “rudimentary level” of understanding of his addictions.
Had he pleaded not guilty, Judge Tiwana told Huici he would have been sentenced to 11 years behind bars.
Huici must register as a sex offender for eight years.
His 1,004 days of pre-sentence detention have been counted as time served.
He will remain behind bars until 2029.