Walking from courtroom two teenage ladies are perpetually bonded – attacked by the identical sexual predator. Joshua Vassallo befriended them each, he’ll spend 22 years behind bars for abusing them.
In January 2019, Kylie was 14, she’d recognized Vassallo for years by way of his sister and trusted him like a brother.
One evening the then 23-year-old supplied to drive her McDonalds, as an alternative he took her to a Point Cook reserve. There he dragged her again into his automobile when she tried to flee and raped her.
Kylee advised Nine News; “I felt trapped. I felt like I wasn’t gonna get out. I knew I had to do what he wanted.”
When Kylee managed to run house, he adopted her within the automobile. In the times that adopted she managed to inform her household and strategy police – however Vassallo started threatening them to not press costs.
In cellphone calls and textual content messages he claimed she’d by no means be capable to show she was raped and that he would sue their household.
“He tried to say that it wasn’t true at all and called me a slut and tried to say I’m just a lying filthy thing.”
“It just belittled me and I didn’t know why he was trying to lie straight to my parents.”
When folks heard what occurred to her, they turned. Kylee misplaced mates and two years of education.
Her psychological well being suffered, and he or she felt like she nonetheless could not escape.
“I would see cars that look like his car and I would just shut down straight away and get scared or cramp up. It just made me feel useless and vulnerable.”
In November 2020, Vassallo attacked a second woman, whereas he was on parole for different offences.
He drove her and a buddy round, giving them GHB. After her buddy left, the 15-year-old fell unconscious – she woke as much as Vassallo raping her.
During the four-hour ordeal, he left the teenager handed out in his locked automobile – after pouring water on her, he dropped her house.
He advised her mother and father he’d given her a raise as a result of she was drunk – actions the choose known as audaciously conceited.
When Kylee discovered he’d finished it once more, she was shattered. “It boiled my blood because I could have done something to prevent it if I did something at the start,” she stated.
After assembly in particular person for the primary time at courtroom, Kylee now hopes they’ll keep in contact; “We have each other now, we fought the battle together and we made it.”
Vassallo’s sentencing got here on Kylee’s nineteenth birthday – he was given 22 years behind bars with a 14-year non-parole interval.
“The sentence that he ended up getting I honestly never dreamt of and to happen on my birthday, it’s not too much of a bad day to remember,” Kylee stated.
But the street to a sentence, even a conviction took years. While Vassallo was in jail for different offences he tried to discredit the ladies once more.
Before going to path over the 2 rapes he requested a cellmate to get a letter to a buddy, instructing them to threaten one of many witnesses.
He was charged with perverting the course of justice, which added to his sentence. It was solely after being caught he pleaded responsible to the rapes, the choose apologising to the ladies for the delays they’d confronted within the courtroom system.
Vassallo was additionally sentenced for kidnapping and torturing a person in a Truganina workshop. He was attacked between the rapes.
Vassallo held his face to an engine fan and compelled him to eat pet food. Police discovered the movies on his cellphone.
The trauma of the method has been one of many hardest components for Kylee.
“The day I sat in the courthouse and heard everything he had to say, it destroyed me I couldn’t believe how much he had changed his story and made me look like the bad person,” Kylee stated.
But she hopes sharing her story will empower others to talk up.
“It might convince and help other girls to gain the strength to come forward about all these monsters that are out in the world, because it’s disgusting what they’re getting away with.”
Now 27, Vassallo might be eligible for parole in lower than a decade and a half – at any time when he’s launched he’ll be on the intercourse offenders checklist for all times.
Support is accessible from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
Source: www.9news.com.au
