Woman allegedly abducted and raped after being found in Shepparton front yard

The Vanuatu national is charged with abduction and rape.

Shepparton police Detective Senior Constable Milly Osborne told the court Mr Bule Meme had found the woman very drunk and unconscious in the front yard of a Shepparton house, put her in the car he had borrowed, and drove off with her on August 10.

The woman had been left with her mother on the front lawn by friends about 10.30pm after she had started drifting in and out of consciousness after being out drinking.

She later recorded a blood alcohol concentration of 0.23.

The woman’s mother attempted to raise her, but when she was unable to do so, she left her where she lay.

The court heard Mr Bule Meme, who was living in Shepparton at the time, found her between 11pm and midnight and loaded her into his car.

The court was told, at 1am, the car broke down in a remote area near orchards in Poplar Ave and Mr Bule Meme left the woman with the vehicle and walked off.

Some passers-by found her laying on the ground near the car “heightened and screaming” and drifting in and out of consciousness, Det Sen Constable Osborne said.

At 2am she told hospital staff she had been raped.

The officer told the court testing showed the woman had had sex, and sperm found on her had a “100 billion ratio as being from the same contributor as the DNA found on the car’s steering wheel”.

“When she was located she was not capable of providing consent to sex or being taken away,” Det Sen Constable Osborne said.

The court was told Mr Bule Meme left Shepparton within hours of being contacted by police, and it took police two months to locate him in Griffith and extradite him to Victoria.

Det Sen Constable Osborne said Mr Bule Meme should not be bailed as he was “a threat to the wellbeing of women in public”.

“The accused took advantage of a young, intoxicated, cognitively impaired female who was not known to him,” she said.

“His offending is audacious and disdainful, and he shows no self-restraint for opportunistic offending.

“The accused left the complainant crying and screaming on the side of the road in a remote location after raping her.”

Police also allege Mr Bule Meme was a risk of failing to appear on bail, given he had fled from police and turned his phone off, avoiding police for two months.

“He is a Vanuatu national and police hold concerns that he may attempt to flee the country due to the seriousness of the allegations and his tendency to avoid police apprehension,” Det Sen Constable Osborne said.

The court was told Mr Bule Meme came to Australia on a bridging visa, and had applied for a protection visa, but it had been denied on September 14.

A review of this decision is pending.

When interviewed by police, Mr Bule Meme told them he had been playing the pokies until 3am at the Victoria Hotel and saw the woman laying on the ground on his way home and had stopped to “render assistance”.

The court heard Mr Bule Meme told police the woman was crying and he believed she was drunk, so he carried her to his car and his intentions were to “convey the complainant home once he ascertained her address”.

He told police when the vehicle broke down in Poplar Ave, he tried to phone friends to help, and when none did, he walked to a friend’s house.

When he and the friend returned to the car, he said the woman was gone.

Mr Bule’s solicitor, Alanna Noone, argued her client should be bailed as it was his first time in custody, and he was vulnerable because he was isolated by the language barrier.

She also said he had no criminal history and she felt his “risk of reoffending was low” given the charges stemmed from one event.

She also said there were triable issues and there could be a delay while DNA testing was done.

Ms Noone said Mr Bule Meme had family in Shepparton, and was the sole bread winner for family members back in Vanuatu, to whom he sent money.

Mr Bule Meme also “vehemently denied” avoiding detection by police, and said he had travelled to Griffith because he was a “fruit picker”, Ms Noone said.

In denying bail, magistrate Simon Zebrowski said a lot hinged on the DNA testing that still had to be done.