A 29-year-old man charged with sexually assaulting an elderly woman in an aged care home in Coffs Harbour, on the NSW North Coast, allegedly wore a stocking over his face and put his hand over her mouth to stop her screaming, before police say she kicked him in the groin and scratched his face.
Footage of the arrest shows gloved officers calmly arresting Hayden Carl Skinner outside a shop in Coffs Harbour about 2.30pm on Thursday, January 4.
“To break into a nursing home, you are only going to find vulnerable people living there. It beggars belief that someone would do this,” State Crime Command’s Sex Crimes Squad commander Detective Superintendent Jayne Doherty said.
“An attack like this in the security of your own bed is very difficult to come to terms with.”
Describing the incident as “horrendous”, Detective Superintendent Doherty said police would allege that, at 2.20am on New Year's Day, Skinner “placed a stocking over his face to disguise his appearance” before entering the 76-year old woman’s room via a courtyard.
“The woman heard the door open and woke to see the man walking through her room,” she said in Sydney on Friday, January 5.
She said the woman screamed, and Skinner allegedly put his hand over her mouth, removed her underwear and sexually assaulted her.
NSW Ambulance paramedics treated the woman at the scene before she was taken to hospital for further examination and treatment for minor injuries. She is being cared for by her family.
Local police commenced inquiries before the investigation was taken over by State Crime Command’s Sex Crimes Squad under Strike Force Coolong.
Skinner was taken to Coffs Harbour Police Station where he was charged with aggravated sex assault - break and enter with intent. He has been refused bail.
In a separate incident, a man was charged in November last year over the alleged sexual assault of a 90-year-old woman at an aged care facility at Bateau Bay on the NSW Central Coast. Brett Anthony Crawford, 34, is facing multiple assault and break and enter charges and remains before the courts. The woman died in hospital two weeks later, although Crawford has not been charged in relation to her death.
