The 35-year wait for justice: Rapist jailed for brutal Perth and Kalgoorlie attacks

8 hours ago 1

A Perth man has been sentenced to 13½ years in jail for the horrific and terrifying rape of two young women 35 years ago.

Kevin Frederick Combes, 56, was arrested last year after investigative genealogy techniques linked him to the sexual assault of a 17-year-old woman in Kalgoorlie in 1991 and a 19-year-old woman in Perth CBD in 1990.

Kevin Combes leaving Perth Magistrates Court last year.

The then 19-year-old victim, who was present in court on Thursday, was leaving a bar on Barrack Street just after midnight in June 1990 when she was grabbed and taken into a dark alleyway where a knife was pressed against her throat.

She was told to take off her clothes and lie on her stomach before she was raped.

Combes, then aged 20, then said to the woman “if you scream I’ll kill you” as she was trying to negotiate with him to let her go. She offered him money to do so but he refused and instead raped her, before letting her go.

She reported the crime but police struggled to find her attacker until DNA collected by them on the day of the attack was, over 30 years later, connected to Combes, leading to his arrest.

Police also linked him to a second sex assault that took place in Kalgoorlie in February 1991, eight months after the Perth attack.

During that assault, Combes got a lift from a 17-year-old girl before he forced her into the boot of the car at knifepoint and then drove her to a secluded area in Boulder where he raped her.

In a victim impact statement the woman wrote to the court ahead of Combes’ sentencing, she spoke of how she was further humiliated by having to flag down a truck driver whilst naked to get help.

“Your offending was repeated, it was violent, it was prolonged,” District Court judge Wendy Hughes said.

Both women described lifelong trauma as a result of being raped by Combes which had irrevocably altered them and the course of their lives, they said.

Kevin Combes being arrested for the historic rapes.

One of the women said she was suicidal and had tried to take her own life a number of times.

Combes’ defence lawyer Mark Hager told the court his client had accepted responsibility for his offending as he described it as an “out of the ordinary sentencing” because of the passage of time.

Hager said his client had no justification or excuse for what he did as he revealed he had no memory of either incident as he was at the time in the throes of drug and alcohol addiction.

Hager added that Combes’ father had been violent and that he had “learned traits of extreme violence from him” before joining the Navy where he was introduced to “a culture of illicit drug use and alcohol”.

The court was also told that since the offending Combes had “lived a life of faith” and became a proactive member of his church. He also went on to have seven children which he was the primary carer for whilst his wife was the breadwinner.

“I accept you are a different person today than you were when you committed these offences,” Hughes told Combes.

“But you must be punished for what you did … a message must be sent to the community.”

Hughes sentenced Combes to a total of 13½ years in prison with eligibility for parole.

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