A Vanuatuan fruit picker has been refused bail after being charged with abducting and raping a drunk intellectually disabled 20-year-old woman in Victoria.
Dexley Bulememe, 28, faced Shepparton Magistrates Court on Monday from Melbourne Assessment Prison, where Magistrate Simon Zebrowski denied his bail application because he was an “unacceptable risk to the community”.
Police allege the accused, who is on a bridging visa, spotted the unconscious woman on the nature strip outside her home where her friends had left her just before 11pm after a night of drinking on August 10, and allegedly put her in his car, the Herald Sun reported.
Bulememe then allegedly drove her to a remote location and raped her, leaving her in the car when its battery died. She was found in an extreme state of distress at 1am, and told nurses at Goulburn Valley Health she had been raped and her underwear was gone.
The court heard that DNA from a rape test kit found sperm with a billion times likelihood of being from the same person who left DNA in the silver Toyota Camry driven by Bulememe on the night of the alleged attack, but a sperm sample is yet to be taken from Bulememe.
Police allege Bulememe fled the state, turning off his phone and travelling to Griffith, NSW, before eventually coming forward to police on October 9 to admit putting the woman in his car but denying rape.
Police then charged him with abduction and rape, and opposed bail in court.
“The accused left the complainant crying and screaming on the side of the road in a remote location after raping her, showing no remorse upon the completion of the act,” police documents stated.
“The accused resides temporarily between farm houses where women of culturally diverse communities are known to live.
“Police believe that the accused cannot be trusted residing within close proximity of women, given his willingness to commit opportunistic and serious offending against women.”
Bulememe will return to court on January 8.
Header image: Melbourne Assessment Prison (Canley, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
