Former in-home carer Simon Prodanovich faced sentencing yesterday for the horrific rape of an 83-year-old grandmother in her Mount Waverley home.
The maximum sentence for this crime is 25 years jail, but unsurprisingly, his sentence was a lot more lenient than that.
Victorian County Court Judge Susan Pullen sentenced Mr. Prodanovich to eight years jail yesterday but he is eligible for parole after 5.5 years.
When we detailed the horrific details of this case earlier in the week, we chose to omit certain details as we felt that they were too graphic, and yet somehow the abhorrent nature of this crime did not warrant even half of the possible maximum sentence.
The Office of Public Prosecutions also decided not to place Mr. Prodanovich on the sex offenders register, which boggles the mind when you consider that this is usually routine in rape cases of this nature.
Mr. Prodanovich was emotionless throughout sentencing as Judge Pullen described the devastating effects that his crime has had on the victim and her family, only shedding a tear when mention was made of his own ‘difficult upbringing.’
Mr. Prodanovich was hired to provide care for the victim’s wheelchair-bound husband when he committed the heinous act, wheeling the elderly gentleman out of the bedroom and into the lounge room so he would be alone with the victim.
The victim asked Mr. Prodanovich for medication to help with her leg problems, but he told her to ‘forget about the meds’ and convinced her that a leg massage would be better, and then raped her as she begged him to stop.
The cruelty of this crime was compounded even further as Mr. Prodanovich claimed that the elderly woman fabricated the story because he refused to rub lotion on her when initially questioned by the police.
Mr. Prodanovich continued to stick with his bogus story until DNA evidence that was recovered from the elderly woman’s injuries revealed the evil truth and he was forced to confess, telling a psychiatrist that the crime was a ‘brain fade.’
Sadly, the elderly victim has suffered unthinkable emotional trauma since the crime and now fears all men and refuses to be treated by any male nurse or doctor.
The victim also stated that she still cries when she thinks about what occurred.
It’s hard to fathom that a possible 5.5 years of imprisonment can be viewed as justice for a crime of this magnitude, especially when the trauma endured by the victim will undoubtedly be a life sentence for her.
