A tiny sample of DNA has finally condemned serial criminal Neville Mansfield to a long time in jail for a rape he committed 18 years ago.
Almost two decades after his callous crime, the violent intruder has been jailed for raping a woman during a home robbery while her two children and a babysitter were tied up in another room.
Mansfield, heavily disguised, entered a home in Shepparton in country Victoria through an unlocked door in 1993 and raped a mother after tying up her six-year-old son, a daughter aged 11 and their elderly babysitter.
Initially, the 50-year-old Mansfield wasn't a suspect and it took police 18 years to establish his identity.
The breakthrough, the Victorian County Court has been told, came in 2007 when Queensland police had reason to take a DNA sample from him and it was matched to a national DNA database.
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The jury heard at his trial that a DNA fragment taken from the home invasion was more than 14 trillion times more likely to be his than a random member of the public's.
Judge Marilyn Harbison on Monday jailed Mansfield for 16 years with a minimum of 12 years, saying he'd traumatised his victims, turning their family home into a place of terror.
"Your actions on that morning had long-term devastating effects upon all your victims," she said.
The court heard that after entering the Shepparton home, Mansfield grabbed the boy, held a knife to his throat and told his mother: "Do as you are told or he will be hurt. I will slit his throat."
The horrified babysitter and the woman's daughter watched as the mother tried to persuade the man to release her son.
The mother handed him cash before Mansfield tied the hands of all four of his victims, placed socks in their mouths and pillowcases over their heads.
When the babysitter, who was in her 60s, asked why he was doing this he replied: "It's the drugs, I have big bills to pay."
Mansfield ransacked the house and raped the mother in another room, running a knife across her body and saying: "I could kill you with this," the court heard.
After searching the house, he told the mother: "You are very lucky that I didn't slit all your throats and cut your dog's head off. You're not to tell anyone or I will come back with friends next time and kill you."
A jury found Mansfield guilty of five charges of rape, four counts of unlawful imprisonment, three of threats to kill, and one each of indecent assault and aggravated burglary.
The court was told he began using drugs as a teenager and by the time he reached his 30s he'd spent half his life in jail.
After sentencing, Mansfield's victims, who sat through each day of the trial, said they were relieved their ordeal was finally over.
"It's taken nearly 19 years so it's been a real journey for us," the mother told reporters.
"I think we all feel a lot more safe."
She urged other victims in similar circumstances never to give up hope.
"It could happen to you just like it did with us and it was the best news we ever heard when we found someone had been apprehended," she said.
"It answered a lot of questions."
