Teenager cried for her mum as a man who said he would drive her home from a nightclub instead dragged her into his house and raped her – before she was forced to ask her attacker ‘can I go home now?’
- Teenager raped by Kushan Palliyaguruge, 28, in Melbourne in December, 2018
- She was intoxicated at a Melbourne nightclub when he said he’d drive her home
- He assaulted her in the car and took her back to his house where her raped her
- Jury found Palliyaguruge guilty of rape and teen was left severely traumatised
A teenage girl cried out for her mother after she was dragged inside to be raped by a man who promised to drive her home from a nightclub.
The woman was sitting alone on a couch at the Orange Whip Nightclub in Ringwood, in Melbourne’s east after having ‘too much to drink’ in December 2018.
Kushan Palliyaguruge, 28, hadn’t met the woman before but told security he would take her home, claiming she was his girlfriend.
But instead he drove her back to his own house after telling her ‘we’ll quickly go to my house for a f**k’, the Victorian County Court heard.
The intoxicated woman was sitting alone on a couch at the Orange Whip Nightclub in Ringwood, in Melbourne’s east in December 2018 before she was approached by the man
A jury found Palliyaguruge, who moved to Australia from Sri Lanka in 2017, guilty of rape, the Herald Sun reported.
The 28-year-old escorted the young woman out of the club in the early hours of the morning after she told security he was her friend.
After she was raped, the teenager told police she thought she was getting into an Uber and not the car of a stranger.
During the ride back to Palliyaguruge’s home, the teenager was sitting in the back seat but the man reached around his arm and assaulted her.
The young woman cried and begged the man to take her home and hand back her phone, but instead he pulled over and assaulted her again.
When the pair arrived at his house, Palliyaguruge ‘dragged’ the woman inside and raped her.
After the terrifying ordeal she asked for her phone back to call a friend and asked her attacker: ‘Can I go home now?’.
Palliyaguruge drove her home and tried to assault her another time as she cried out for her mother.
The teenager has been left with mental health issues after the terrifying ordeal and no longer drinks alcohol
Eventually arriving back home at around 4am, the teenager told her mother what just happened to her.
The teenager is still struggling with the trauma from her attack that left her battling mental health issues, bulimia, and PTSD.
She no longer drinks alcohol, is too scared to walk alone, and has issues trusting men.
Palliyaguruge was ‘sorry’ for the situation and his victim, his lawyer told the court.
His case was adjourned so he could be assessed for a psychological report after the court heard he had poor mental health.
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