Ex-AirAsia pilot jailed 13 years for raping woman in Perth

KUALA LUMPUR: A former AirAsia pilot has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for raping a woman at knifepoint in Perth 21 years ago, Australian media reported yesterday.

Perth Now reported that Western Australia District Court Judge Philip Eaton jailed Alfred Gerard Eravelly, 50, after finding the accused had shown no remorse and was still in denial.

“You have no insight into your offending, or victim empathy,” the judge was quoted saying.

Eaton also said he expected that the man’s career would be destroyed after the convictions.

Eravelly will be eligible for parole after serving a minimum of 11 years, and the sentence was backdated to February this year.

In March 1996, Eravelly allegedly broke into a 38-year-old woman’s beachside villa through her bathroom window, before raping her at knife-point.

During the attack, Eravelly had tied the blindfolded victim up in a rope and sexually assaulted her. He had attempted to conceal his identity by wearing a stocking over his head.

However, DNA traces which were left behind the scene had led to his arrest.

According to the Australian Associated Press, Eravelly’s DNA was matched with an earlier DNA found in Florida, US. He had committed battery and voyeurism offences in Florida back in 2000.

During the Florida incident, Eravelly had ejaculated on a woman’s hair inside a library at a university campus.

Western Australia’s police force was able to match the DNA left at the Perth scene with the DNA left at Florida.

The father-of-two was finally arrested in February last year when he arrived in Sydney on a flight from Malaysia, and was then extradited to Perth.

Eravelly was charged with five counts of aggravated sexual penetration without consent, burglary, deprivation of liberty and unlawful wounding.

He was found guilty on all counts during the six-day trial.

Eravelly had told police in a video-recorded interview that he knew the woman, and they had consensual sex thrice before the alleged incident. Eravelly claimed the woman had made false allegations.

However, Eaton told the court yesterday he found Eravelly’s account fabricated, and concluded that his crimes were premeditated.

“You arrived with a knife, a torch, a stocking to conceal your identity and a rope to bind the victim,” he reportedly said.

The court was earlier told that Eravelly was an aviation student living in Scarborough, a coastal suburb in Perth in 1996, before returning to Malaysia to work for AirAsia.