An ice addict who abducted two women at knifepoint from a Keilor East car wash and threatened them with ‘‘what happened to Jill Meagher’’ has been jailed for at least three years.
Aaron Schrempf, 24, donned a hooded top and bandanna and kidnapped the friends when he threatened them with a 20-centimetre kitchen knife. He got in the back seat of their car at a Keilor East car wash on the night of May 28 last year. The women were 19 and 22 at the time.
After demanding the women drive to an ATM to withdraw money, Schrempf told them ‘‘if there is any funny business you know what happened to Jill Meagher’’. One of the women began crying, believing she and her friend would be killed.
Schrempf also told the women ‘‘I will rape you in front of each other and slit your throats’’, the County Court heard on Wednesday.
The court heard one of the women was permitted to go to an ATM to withdraw cash, while the abductor stayed with the other victim and issued more threats.
Later, when both women were in the car, he demanded one of them lift her top and bra, and indecently assaulted her.
The court heard a skin swab taken from the woman’s body matched Schrempf’s DNA.
Schrempf robbed the women of $550 cash, their purses, their iPhones and an iPod.
Judge Mark Taft said Schrempf’s threats that invoked the ordeal of Ms Meagher – who was raped and killed on September 22, 2012 – were ‘‘calculated to cause terror’’, and that he had repeatedly made threats of violence of a sexual nature.
Judge Taft said the offending was most serious, and described the indecent assaults against the women as degrading and gratuitous.
The court heard the ordeal had left both women anxious and fearful, and that they had difficulties sleeping and dealing with physical contact with their partners.
One said in a victim impact statement: ‘‘I just can’t comprehend how someone could do such a thing to innocent young women.’’
Schrempf was using the methamphetamine commonly known as ice at the time, was depressed at the prospect of losing his labouring job, and at having just broken up with his partner, after she had learnt he was using the drug, the court heard.
Schrempf pleaded guilty to two counts each of armed robbery, false imprisonment and indecent assault.
The father of two young children kept his head bowed for much of his sentence and cried when Judge Taft imposed a head sentence of five years and two months. Schrempf must spend a minimum three years in jail.
