A Perth man has been sentenced to 13½ years in jail for the horrific and terrifying rape of two young women 35 years ago.
Kevin Frederick Combes, 56, was arrested last year after investigative genealogy techniques linked him to the sexual assault of a 17-year-old woman in Kalgoorlie in 1991 and a 19-year-old woman in Perth CBD in 1990.
Kevin Combes leaving Perth Magistrates Court last year.Credit: Nine News
The then 19-year-old victim, who was present in court on Thursday, was leaving a bar on Barrack Street just after midnight in June 1990 when she was grabbed and taken into a dark alleyway where a knife was pressed against her throat.
She was told to take off her clothes and lie on her stomach before she was raped.
Combes, then aged 20, then said to the woman “if you scream I’ll kill you” as she was trying to negotiate with him to let her go. She offered him money to do so but he refused and instead raped her, before letting her go.
She reported the crime but police struggled to find her attacker until DNA collected by them on the day of the attack was, over 30 years later, connected to Combes, leading to his arrest.
Police also linked him to a second sex assault that took place in Kalgoorlie in February 1991, eight months after the Perth attack.
During that assault, Combes got a lift from a 17-year-old girl before he forced her into the boot of the car at knifepoint and then drove her to a secluded area in Boulder where he raped her.
In a victim impact statement the woman wrote to the court ahead of Combes’ sentencing, she spoke of how she was further humiliated by having to flag down a truck driver whilst naked to get help.
