AN aged care burglar has been found guilty of the sickening rape of a vulnerable, elderly woman.
Hayden Skinner, 31, assaulted the 76-year-old woman during a burglary at an aged-care facility on the north coast of New South Wales in Australia.
During the judge-alone trial, the depraved thief said he only broke into the dark room on January 1 in 2024 in search of valuables to pay off a drug debt, when the frail victim attacked him after she woke.
He denied any sexual contact with the victim, who has since passed away from unrelated causes.
On Wednesday, Judge Michael McHugh rejected his evidence, finding Skinner guilty of one count of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent.
The court heard the woman was seen naked from the waist down, “frantically screaming” in the facility’s hallway after the rape.
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She recounted the terrifying 12-minute long attack on several occasions afterwards, including to her son and his partner as well as a nurse, saying that she had been attacked by a masked man in her room.
Throughout the trial, the court heard she had been “pinned down” and raped.
After the attack, she told her nurse she had “tried to scream” but couldn’t because Skinner had been covering her mouth.
In heartbreaking evidence, the woman’s son said she “thought he was going to kill her”.
Investigators found her pants, underwear and an incontinence pad next her bed.
In damning evidence heard by the court, cops found Skinner’s DNA on her clothing, her genitals and under her fingernails.
On the night of the stomach-turning assault, the vile burglar scaled a fence and entered the woman’s room through a sliding door.
The victim had left the door unlocked after going outside to watch a storm.
She would later tell a staff member “I forgot to lock the door, it’s all my fault”.
Skinner said the woman asked “who the hell” he thought he was when she woke to find him in her room.
He said the elderly woman grabbed him, pulled him onto her bed in a bear hug, and grabbed his genitals and hairbefore wrapping her legs around his waist.
His palm print was also found at the scene, the court heard.
Legal aid lawyer Peter Pearsall argued the victim was an unreliable witness, who had shown a “racial attitude”.
CCTV footage captured “a figure” arriving at the centre at 2.18am and leaving at 2.30am.
Skinner has been behind bars since his arrest, just days after the assault.
He will return to the Coffs Harbour District Court on February 2, when a date for sentencing will be set.
Skinner previously pleaded guilty to one charge of breaking and entering with intent.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.