'Horror' rapist fresh out of jail when jogger attacked

A man who held a female jogger's head under creek water and repeatedly raped her had been released from prison months earlier after raping a 16-year-old girl.

Joel Russo, 28, pleaded guilty in Victoria's County Court to rape, sexual assault and conduct endangering a person, after attacking a woman at parklands in Melbourne's north in 2019. 

He appeared in court via video link from prison for a pre-sentence hearing on Wednesday, when full details of his criminal history were revealed.

The court was told Russo, who has an intellectual disability, was jailed in 2015 for five years for raping a 16-year-old girl in a southeast Melbourne park.

Russo was released after serving his sentence for the rape of the girl at the end of July 2019. 

On December 3 that year, he abducted a woman jogging along the Merri Creek Trail in Brunswick East and subjected her to hours of horrific sexual and physical abuse.

Judge Elizabeth Gaynor described that attack as "every woman's worst nightmare".

"To any woman this reads like a chamber of horrors," she told the court on Wednesday.

About 7.30pm, Russo grabbed the woman from behind and dragged her down a steep embankment towards the creek, prosecutor Jane Warren said.

"She clawed the ground to try to stop Mr Russo dragging her into the water," she said.

Russo pulled her into the creek waters and told her to stop screaming. She believed he was trying to kill her. 

He got on top of her and pushed her head under the surface twice, at one point for 30 seconds. Russo said he would let her live if they had sex, before repeatedly raping her in the creek and in some nearby bushes. 

After the assaults, they walked to a nearby McDonald's and Russo insisted on holding her hand.

He asked her if she would tell the police, whether she enjoyed it and if she would "visit him in jail". 

Russo then told the woman: "Sorry for raping you. I've ruined your life, haven't I?"

At about 10pm that day, the woman clutched a pole outside the McDonald's as Russo tried to pull her away from the restaurant. He eventually left.

Her clothing wet and hair covered in twigs, she asked someone at the store to call the police. Russo was later arrested trying to steal money and cigarettes.

The victim said she avoided spending time in nature and parks since the attack.

"There is no limit to the anger I feel knowing the most life-threatening risk I took was to go for a walk alone and to be a woman," she said in a statement read to the court.

Ms Warren said there was a high risk Russo would reoffend if he was released due to the strikingly similar 2015 offending.

Russo's barrister Tanya Skvortsova said her client suffered emotional issues stemming from childhood trauma and two weeks before the attack was admitted to a psychiatric ward.

Judge Gaynor expressed frustration Russo had received little support after being released back into the community following his 2015 sentence.

However, she said the attack was "appalling, degrading and terrifying" and required a lengthy prison sentence.

Russo, who remains in custody, will be sentenced in April.

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