‘Every woman’s worst nightmare’: 30-year rape mystery solved

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‘Every woman’s worst nightmare’: 30-year rape mystery solved
A woman has finally seen justice brought against the man who broke into her Ballarat home and raped her in 1990.

A man has finally been jailed after 30 years for breaking into a woman’s house and raping her in a horrific 1990 home invasion in Ballarat.

Brett Stewart Braddock’s wife and three children were “shocked to the core” when the 57-year-old was arrested in 2019 for the cold case crime.

Victorian County Court judge Patricia Riddell said on Wednesday the “premeditated” and “predatory” rape stood in stark contrast to the rest of Braddock’s life, with his friends and family portraying him as a “loving family man” with “pride in (his) role as a protector and provider.”

His victim was 38, and living with five daughters all aged under 16, when Braddock and another man - who is still at large - broke into her home and subjected her to “every woman’s worst nightmare.”

The horrific night started with the victim watching a movie with her daughters before going to bed after midnight.

Braddock and the other man wore face masks when they broke into the house between 4am and 5am on July 22 before going into the victim’s bedroom.

When she said, ‘Who are you?’ one of them callously said ‘I’m a secret admirer,’ and told her to take off her underwear.

The two men took turns raping her while the other one held her down and covered her mouth, causing her “severe pain.”

They told her they would kill her defenceless daughters if she struggled or told anyone what they had done.

In an act of “maternal self-sacrifice” the victim did not call the police because of her “grave” fears for the safety of her children.

But her 15-year-old daughter ran to tell a neighbour, who did call police, and an investigation began that would not bear fruit for 30 years.

Improved DNA testing procedures meant in 2012 a DNA profile was built from stains on the victim’s sheets that had been kept in police archives since the offence. Then, in 2018 the Victorian Sexual Crimes Squad Cold Case Unit re-examined the case.

On January 25, 2019, Braddock was asked to provide a DNA sample, and he was caught for a crime he thought he’d gotten away with for almost three decades.

He was arrested on April 2, 2019, and initially denied any involvement.

But when faced with the indisputable DNA evidence he eventually pleaded guilty to one count of burglary and two counts of aggravated rape.

Judge Patricia Riddell said the crime made the victim feel powerless and helpless as well as leaving her with physical injuries.

“It must have felt like an eternity,” she said.

“You committed these offences in her home, a place where she was entitled to feel safe.

“She lived there with her husband until he died of illness. It must have been an important anchor for her and her children after that time.”

She said the young family had to live in crisis accommodation for months until they could find a new home, because of their fears the men would return and inflict more pain.

Judge Riddell praised the work of Victoria Police: “They did not rest, or abandon this case, despite its age,” she said. “They did not give up.”

Braddock was sentenced to 12 years and two months in prison with nine years non-parole.