A personal carer who wheeled a disabled man out of the way before raping his 82-year-old wife in the couple's bed will spend at least five-and-a-half years behind bars.
Simon Prodanovich, 59, told his victim "ladies like that" as he sexually assaulted her while at the couple's suburban Melbourne home for the community support company Omni-Care on January 12.
He had arrived to find the couple in bed and washed the 86-year-old man, who could not walk, before wheeling him to another room and returning to assault his wife under the guise of a leg massage.
When she demanded "stop, that's enough of it", Prodanovich fled and days later told police he was "gobsmacked" a woman of that age would slander him.
Judge Susan Pullen described his actions as nothing short of "appalling, reprehensible and repulsive".
"She (the victim) felt so angry and confused about why you would do something like this to a woman her age. She felt fooled and betrayed by you," the judge said.
Prodanovich pleaded guilty to digital rape but not before telling police the allegation was false and a fabrication.
"I was in bed last night thinking why this person had made an allegation," he told police, the judge said.
"The only thing I could think of (was) retribution, anger as to why I didn't assist her (the woman) while I was there."
The woman took medication for her legs at the time but Prodanovich had insisted a massage would be more helpful.
The suspended carer later blamed the rape on a "brain failure" and could not offer further explanation as to why he'd committed the assault, Judge Pullen said.
"I have difficulty understanding what you really meant by that," she said.
The rape had "brutalised" the woman and left her feeling angry, fearful and like she couldn't trust men.
She was recently in hospital but had to be moved and then left while still unwell after becoming terrified the male patients in her ward would rape her.
One of the women's daughters said her mother "would rather put her life at risk than enter unknown situations where men might be", the judge said.
Prodanovich was jailed for a maximum of eight years and must serve five-and-a-half years before becoming eligible for release on parole.
Australian Associated Press
