A dog walker who stabbed her rapist with his own knife wonders why she survived when so many other women didn't.
She turned Tyler Skerry's weapon against him, stabbing him in the buttocks, during the night-time attack at a Melbourne park in October.
The 33-year-old woman, who cannot be identified, says society needs to change to ensure other women aren't hurt like she was.
"I don't know why he thought it was okay to rape a woman. I have literally no idea how someone could want to do this," she told Victorian County Court Judge Rosemary Carlin on Wednesday.
"I feel guilty that I survived when other women in my situation didn't. I know that I'm not any more deserving of life than any of the other woman who had theirs stolen."
She considers herself "capable, independent and brave" but now has to live with the "dark cloud" of the assault hanging over her head.
Skerry, 23, pretended to have lost his wallet and asked the woman for help finding it.
Instead, he digitally raped her while armed with a four-inch paring knife at Thornbury's Mayer Park.
"As if you are doing this," the woman told him.
"It's going to hurt when I f***ing stab you."
Skerry told her to be quiet and was pulling down his pants when the woman grabbed the knife, stabbed him, fled with her friend's dog and flagged down a passing car.
The rapist has an IQ of 74, and was homeless and on a good behaviour bond at the time.
He spent his days taking the drug ice, drinking and wandering aimlessly through the suburbs.
He had a hazy memory of the attack but didn't dispute it and pleaded guilty to rape and the theft of his victim's phone, which he sold the next day.
"If that's how the poor lady explains the whole story, I did it, yeah," Skerry told police after his family helped to turn him in to authorities.
"I know I did wrong."
The rape was described as opportunistic.
Skerry was on the borderline of intellectual impairment and incapable of high-level planning or sophisticated premeditation, his barrister Christopher Terry told the court.
When asked by the court to name his previous occupation, Skerry replied "male". He went on to clarify he had worked odd jobs as a tradie.
His victim said she hoped "he gets the help he needs to exist in the community without being a danger to anyone else".
"I dwell on the prevalence of sexual assault and violence against women a lot," she said.
"Even with systematic change, there will be outliers (who do this to women)".
She called for cultural change, better education and mental health support services to help keep other women safe.
Prosecutor Brett Sonnet said the woman's actions in fighting off her attacker were heroic.
She was entitled to walk a dog at night and Skerry's behaviour was outrageous, Mr Sonnet said.
As Skerry's hearing ended, he told the court: "Thank you, guys. Have a lovely day."
He has already spent 269 days behind bars and will be sentenced on August 5.
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Australian Associated Press
