A man who broke into a woman’s house and pushed her on a bed before running a knife across her breasts and pouring an unknown substance on her bare buttocks will spend years behind bars.
Takavaha Leveni, 37, had been released on bail just days earlier when he forced his way into his victim’s Footscray home in February 2020 before assaulting her.
The court was told the woman thought she was going to die when Leveni covered her head with a doona and pushed her onto the bed.
He flipped her over so she was laying on her stomach, pulled off her underwear and poured an unknown substance over her bare buttocks.
The woman thought it smelt like methylated spirits and that Leveni was going to set her on fire, the court was told.
Judge Scott Johns said the woman believed Leveni was going to rape her when he held a knife to her throat before running it over her breasts.
“You told her, ‘Don’t look and don’t move’,” Judge Johns said.
Leveni also placed his hands down her pants and rubbed himself against her before fleeing txjmtzywhe scene with a mobile phone, wallet and passport.
He then used the woman’s bank card to withdraw money at an ATM.
Just a few hours later, Leveni also tried to break into a nearby apartment where a woman, who was six months pregnant, was sleeping.
But she woke when he heard a noise outside her window just before 9am. When she asked who was there he fled down the driveway.
Leveni was captured on CCTV footage.
Police then launched a search for the accused who remained on the run for almost a week before he was arrested.
Leveni was charged with several offences but only pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated burglary and one count each of attempted burglary and theft.
He denied the sexual attacks and chose to go to trial.
A jury found him guilty of four counts of sexual assault and one count of assault.
The court was told that Leveni was on bail at the time of his crime spree.
He also told police he had taken the party drug GHB in the lead-up to the ordeal and couldn’t remember it.
“Your victim feared for her life,” Judge Johns told the court.
“She feared she would be raped. She feared she would be set alight.
“She’s been left anxious and fearful and her confidence is shaken.”
Leveni was sentenced to eight years and six months behind bars with a non-parole period of five years and three months.
He has already served almost two years of pre-sentence detention.
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