How it took SIX years to catch West End Brisbane alley rapists Ryan George and Jack Winship

The two men who savagely raped a virgin medical student in an alleyway avoided justice for more than six years.

Ryan David George, 33, and Jack Scott Turner Winship, 26, were eventually caught thanks to two clues linking them to the crime scene in West End, inner Brisbane.

After failing to catch the perpetrators of the horrific April 2011 rape for years, police used DNA found on a cigarette butt and the victim’s underwear to arrest the pair.

 

The two men who savagely raped a virgin medical student in an alleyway avoided justice for more than six years (pictured is Jack Turner Winship)

This CCTV image shows the two rapists on the night of the attack in the inner Brisbane suburb of West End in April 2011

This CCTV image shows the two rapists on the night of the attack in the inner Brisbane suburb of West End in April 2011

This image shows the rapists being taken into custody. At their sentencing on Wednesday, a court heard the woman's harrowing victim impact statement

This image shows the rapists being taken into custody. At their sentencing on Wednesday, a court heard the woman’s harrowing victim impact statement

The court heard CCTV footage and phone intercepts also helped police catch the rapists, who must have thought they had gotten away with the crime,The Courier Mail reported.

‘It [the rape] had a relatively high amount of media [attention] in April 2011 [that quickly)] died down,’ said Crown Prosecutor Dzenita Balic during the trial.

‘[Turner Winship] must have thought it disappeared … from his perspective he knew of the complaint but he certainly didn’t come forward to suggest he was the person with her [the victim] in the alley.’

During the investigation police described the violent rape as one of the worst they had ever dealt with. 

‘She was most aggressively raped in the worst way that I have seen in my service,’ Inspector Rod Kemp told reporters shortly after the sexual assault. 

The victim, 20, who was dragged into a dark alley near the corner of Melbourne and Manning streets after bending down to fix her shoe, was hospitalised after the rape.

George and Turner Winship raped and sexually assaulted her between bins and air-conditioning units for at least eight minutes, their trial heard.

During the investigation police described the violent rape as one of the worst they had ever dealt with (pictured is a comfit image of the pair released by police after the brutal attack)

During the investigation police described the violent rape as one of the worst they had ever dealt with (pictured is a comfit image of the pair released by police after the brutal attack)

Ryan George and Jack Turner Winship (pictured) targeted a 20-year-old in a dark Brisbane street in 2011

Ryan George and Jack Turner Winship (pictured) targeted a 20-year-old in a dark Brisbane street in 2011

At the pair’s sentencing at Brisbane District Court on Wednesday, the woman’s victim impact statement was read.

The medical students, who was walking down a well-lit main road to catch a bus before the attack, said the attack left her nauseated and suffering flashbacks.

‘I cannot sleep and when I do I wake up minutes or hours later,’ she wrote.

‘I sincerely hope I’m through the worst but history can’t be erased.’

The woman, who cannot be identified, suffered blood loss after the attack, and was taken to hospital with internal and external injuries, including to her genitals. 

‘There was pain, searing to the core,’ she said in her statement. 

The father of Jack Scott Turner Winship (left) leaves the Supreme Court in Brisbane, Wednesday, May 23, 2018

The father of Jack Scott Turner Winship (left) leaves the Supreme Court in Brisbane, Wednesday, May 23, 2018

The men had argued that all interactions with the university student were consensual.

But the jury disagreed on Tuesday evening and found them guilty after a week-long trial.

Judge Gregory Lynham sentenced the men to a maximum eight years and six months in jail.

‘Your offending can only be described as abhorrent and despicable,’ he said on Wednesday.

At the opening of their trial, the jury were shown crime scene pictures of alley walls that were smeared with blood, which was later confirmed to belong to the victim.

Ms Balic said the victim was a virgin before the attacks and cried in pain while being assaulted.

The parents of Ryan David George leave the Supreme Court in Brisbane, Wednesday, May 23, 2018

The parents of Ryan David George leave the Supreme Court in Brisbane, Wednesday, May 23, 2018

There was never any question Winship and George were in the alley with the woman or that Winship had sexually interacted with her.

When he gave evidence, he claimed the woman was consenting and had been passionately kissing him and George moments after they crossed paths.

‘She was enjoying herself,’ Winship told the court.

He denied his victim appeared drunk and had also bragged about the rape to friends at a pub.

After she was raped, she left the alley and approached Michael Hayward.

He recalled the woman coming to him ‘out of it’, with blood on her lower thighs and hands, and telling him, ‘These guys are trying to hurt me.’

Mr Hayward ran to catch the pair and one of them bragged about a sexual encounter.

He told the jury he was surprised by how ‘jovial and cavalier’ they were.

They will be eligible for parole in July 2022. 

The woman, who cannot be identified, was targeted by the men who noticed she was drunk and staggering towards a bus stop (pictured is Jack Turner Winship)

The woman, who cannot be identified, was targeted by the men who noticed she was drunk and staggering towards a bus stop (pictured is Jack Turner Winship)

 



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