by Nino Bucci, The Age
A man alleged to be one of the most prolific family violence offenders in the state’s history has faced court, charged with 122 offences spanning two decades against eight victims.
The 38-year-old man, from Truganina, is accused of raping, assaulting, stalking and stealing in an alleged pattern of violence that police say started in April 1994.
He was 16 when he first assaulted a partner, police allege. He allegedly punched her to the head and kidneys, used the butt of a shotgun to break her nose, locked her in the toilet block of the Sunshine Caravan Park, dragged her over a barbed wire fence, cut her stomach, and raped her at a house in Footscray, between April 1994 and December the next year.
The final charges relate to a victim he is alleged to have stalked between August and December, 2014.
Police also allege he dragged a partner around by her hair, binding a partner’s ankles with a black belt while punching her, telling a partner to change a statement to police about how she had been injured, and committing multiple rapes against different women.
The majority of his alleged offending occurred in Melbourne’s west, including in Seddon, Newport and Altona North.
But he was also alleged to have offended in Daylesford, north-west of Melbourne, Wychitella and Korong Vale in central Victoria, and Nhill, in the state’s far west.
The man appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday via videolink.
He shook his head and scoffed when Magistrate Belinda Wallington was told he faced 122 charges.
He will face court again on October 27 for a committal mention.
