Mother knocked unconscious and raped in a public toilet
The Age
Megan Levy
December 12,2014
Photo: Batemans Bay Post
An artist's impression of the baseball cap that the alleged offender was wearing.
A mother was knocked unconscious and raped in a public toilet block on the NSW south coast while her six-year-old daughter cowered in a cubicle just metres away, police say
The 37-year-old woman woke to find the man, who smelled like cigarettes and alcohol, lying on top of her on the floor of the toilet block in Batemans Bay late last month. He then ran away.
Detectives initially believed the woman had been indecently assaulted during the attack, but they now say she was raped in the minutes that she lay unconscious on the toilet block floor.
The woman and her daughter, who are believed to be from the Batemans Bay area, had been in a nearby playground about 4pm on November 27 when the girl said she needed to go to the toilet.
The pair walked into the toilet block and the girl went into a cubicle.
The man then entered the block and approached the mother, who was standing outside the cubicle.
Detective Inspector Michael Haddow, from the Sex Crimes Squad, said the mother instructed her daughter to stay inside the locked cubicle.
The mother was then punched and knocked unconscious, before she was sexually assaulted.
"It's a horrendous experience for her and a very scary experience for her daughter," Detective Inspector Haddow said.
"[The mother] is coping as best as you could imagine."
One fortunate aspect of the case was that the daughter was not fully aware of what had happened, he said.
The woman was taken to Moruya Hospital for treatment, and has since been released.
The woman described her attacker as being about 175 centimetres tall with a medium build, olive complexion and a rounded stomach.
He was wearing a grubby white T-shirt, shorts and dirty white sneakers. The woman said he had a strong body odour and bad breath, and smelled of cigarettes and alcohol.
He also was wearing a tattered, faded blue baseball cap. The peak of the cap was worn to reveal dark blue underneath, and the material on the cap's top button had also worn through.
Anyone with information has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000
