Two men who had violent sex with a woman too drunk to consent left her for dead and burned the blood-soaked mattress
A 33-year-old mother-of-seven died from massive vaginal trauma after ‘wild sex’ in the back of a vehicle on a NSW north coast beach.
Adrian Attwater, 42, and Paul Maris, 46, both admitted to having sex with the woman identified only as 'Norma' on January 26, 2011, in the back of a Toyota troop carrier on a beach near Iluka, but claimed it was consensual, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The following morning Norma was left for dead, naked, on the beach, having lost a fatal amount of blood from traumatic injuries inflicted during sex.
It is believed Attwater and Maris allegedly burned the blood-soaked mattress and some of the woman’s clothing then called a fisherman to help, claiming Norma had collapsed while swimming.
A forensic pathologist who examined Norma said the injuries she sustained "were more severe than those which occur in even precipitous childbirth".
Three months after Norma’s death, police charged Attwater with manslaughter and Maris with being an accessory after the fact to manslaughter.
However, the Director of Public Prosecutions withdrew both charges in 2012 before they reached a committal hearing.
After a 2014 inquest, New South Wales State Coroner Michael Barnes referred the men to the Director of Public Prosecutions after finding a ‘reasonable prospect’ a jury would convict the pair of an offence, but the DPP’s Lloyd Babb refused to charge them.
Mr Barnes said Norma was too drunk to give consent to the sexual acts which caused her death, with a blood-alcohol reading of 0.35, and that her lack of resisting should not have been interpreted as consent. The woman was also found to have taken methylamphetamine.
He also said he did not accept the woman was able to go swimming just minutes before she allegedly collapsed and died from blood loss.
Executive officer of Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia, Karen Willis, has called on the DPP director to reconsider his decision.
"A woman has died in the most horrendous of circumstances and a coroner's court seems to be indicating there is a case to answer," she told The Daily Telegraph.
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