Woman sentenced to prison for almost 11 years after killing her rapist

Brisbane Supreme Court sentenced a mother to over 10 years for stabbing and dragging her rapist by a rope behind her car before dumping him in a ditch.

Roxanne Eka Peters, 35, took matters into her own hands when Grant Jason Cassar, 51, threatened the life of her daughter if Roxanne did not submit to more sex.

Cassar had broken into Roxanne’s home, tied her up, raped her and wanted to do ‘a meth cook-up.’ Later on, Cassar threatened to harm her daughter if she did not submit to more sex.

After she ran to the kitchen to grab a knife, Roxanne repeatedly stabbed him in the chest, throat, and genitals. Roxanne then tied a rope around his body and dragged his body behind her car for 1.6km before dumping his body in a ditch.

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His body was found on Degen Road, Capalaba the next day and Roxanne got charged the day after in December 2015. Cassar suffered a total over 61 injuries including 10cm stab wounds to the chest.

On Monday, October 29 Roxanne got sentenced to 10 years and five months in total on charges of manslaughter and interfering with his corpse.

Justice Boddice said that her upbringing around drug users, having previously been subjected to sexual abuse exacerbated her rage and he saw Roxanne’s rape and humiliation by Cassar, together with him threatening her child as a ‘significant provocation.’ Judge Boddice went on to say:

“I accept the stabbing occurred in circumstances when you were enraged by what the deceased had done to you and was threatening to do to you again.”

However, her actions afterward, and the fact that she did not seek help immediately after the stabbing is what lead to her sentence as Justice Boddice added:

“Instead, you set about the process of callously disposing of the deceased body.”

Her lack of respect for Cassar’s human dignity influenced the outcome of her sentence. With time served she will be eligible for parole in June 2020.

Similarly, Bill Cosby made headlines again recently. He got convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004 and sentenced to 3-10 years in prison after his trial in April, his lawyers filed a motion to ‘reconsider and modify’ his sentence.

However, on October 30, 2018, Pennsylvania Judge Steven T. O’Neill signed a ruling denying the motion and refused Cosby from getting a new trial.

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Judge Steven T. O’Neill signed a ruling denying Bill Cosby the motion to “reconsider and modify” his sentence. The judge also refused the actor from getting a new trial.

In September 2018, in an unrelated case, however also showing the criminal actions of another mentally distraught young mother, the 24-year-old Sandra Fernandes, who suffered from post-natal depression got sentenced after pleading guilty on two counts of fraud and one count of transferring criminal property in Madeira.

Advocate John McCormick argued that she would not have committed the crimes had she not suffered psychiatric symptoms and was remorseful of fraudulently using credit cards of two individuals to make purchases on Amazon.

The situation came to light when a woman approached the police on April 17, 2017, stating her cards got used to making 116 purchases, totaling to £1,898.55. Upon further investigation, they also found evidence of Fernandes using the banking details of a 93-year-old man, with further purchases made on his name amounting to 1,081 transactions through Amazon, totaling £13,559.94.

Fernandes got sentenced to a total of 16 months in prison and had a confiscation order of £12,000 made against her.