An aboriginal career criminal has been made eligible for parole as he was jailed for just three years for sexually assaulting a woman outside her home while on a late-night thieving spree in Western Australia.
Damian Kevin Steven Nungatcha, 26, from Halls Creek, had been released on bail for other burglary offences just 11 days before the sickening attack in Broome on November 12, 2023.
He previously pleaded guilty to one count each of sexual penetration without consent, stealing and aggravated burglary and was sentenced in the Broome District Court on Monday, the Broome Advertiser reported.
On the night of the rape Nungatcha first broke into a caravan where a French backpacker was sleeping and stole her wallet, and fled when confronted.
He then tried to break into a home, but the female occupant, 41, came outside with a wine bottle to find him outside her home. She yelled at him to leave and threw the bottle at him, but he grabbed her from behind and digitally raped her.
Nungatcha’s lawyer said his client only planned to burgle the properties and did not intend on committing any sex offences, and argued that Nungatcha was “struggling” due to be homeless after his release from jail, ABC News reported.
Judge Belinda Lonsdale accepted that he had a difficult upbringing, including being made homeless at 10 and seeing his mother, sisters and aunties suffer domestic violence, but called his offending “particularly serious”.
“You had an opportunity to run away when she confronted you … but you did not do that,” she said.
In sentencing Judge Lonsdale said the sentence needed to be a deterrent: “People are really fed up, particularly in this community … [with those] committing aggravated burglaries.”
But she gave Nungatcha, who has a long criminal record including violent offences and burglary, sentence discounts for his guilty pleas and his troubled childhood, backdated his sentence to January 25 and making him eligible for parole.
Header image: Damian Nungatcha (Facebook)
