ACT Supreme Court jails convicted rapist James March for nine years over violent home invasion

The criminal past of James Dudley March, 36, was canvassed in the ACT Supreme Court on Friday, when he was jailed for nine years over his latest offences and breaches of suspended sentences.

Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson imposed a non-parole period of six years.

March had previously pleaded guilty to burglary, as well as two counts each of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, forcible confinement, and threatening a participant in a criminal proceeding.

All seven charges stemmed from a home invasion that occurred in Ainslie in March 2022.

Court documents show two women were asleep in their home about 2.15am on the morning in question, when March entered the house through an unlocked bathroom window.

He aggressively climbed on top of one of the women while she was in bed, prompting her to scream for her housemate.

March covered her mouth but the housemate heard and entered the room, leading the offender to remark: "It's OK. It's OK. Nothing's wrong."

He proceeded to confine both women in the first victim's bedroom, telling them: "I'm going to have to do this."

March then grabbed both women by their hair and forced them down onto the bed as one screamed and the other fought back by stabbing him in the leg with a key.

One of the victims implored March to explain what he wanted from them, while the other "believed she was about to be beaten, raped or murdered, or all three".

When the offender eventually asked the women their names, each stated a false one.

March, who is said to have seemed distressed at this point, replied: "I was told to come to this house, but I've got the wrong people."

After telling the pair, who had only lived at the home for less than two weeks, that he had a gun down his pants, March demanded the women put their phones on the kitchen bench.

He then claimed to have attended the house to get revenge on someone who had hurt a child, and insisted the women shower to wash away his fingerprints.

March also warned the pair there would be a "target on [their] back" if they went to the police.

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When the 36-year-old ultimately left, the women sought refuge at a friend's home.

Both had lost clumps of their hair and sustained injuries that included bruising and scratches.

They reported the home invasion to police later that morning, despite fears that stemmed from March's threats of retribution.

After an investigation that spanned more than two months, March was arrested in Sydney and extradited to the ACT.

He made several unsolicited comments to police about an incident in which he had gone to the wrong address and encountered "two girls", who "didn't deserve what happened".

In victim impact statements read to the court late last year, both women detailed what Justice Loukas-Karlsson described on Friday as the "serious and long-lasting" consequences of the incident.

These included ongoing fear and paranoia, and the financial impact of having to break their lease on the Ainslie home and move because they no longer felt safe there.

Justice Loukas-Karlsson said the court acknowledged the victims' suffering.

"It is a woman's worst nightmare to have a stranger come into her home in the middle of the night, while she sleeps, and commit such offences," the judge said on Friday.

Justice Loukas-Karlsson also referred to March's "extensive criminal history", which includes jail terms for the rape of an 18-year-old woman and the drunken destruction of gravestones.

After imposing March's latest lengthy prison term, Justice Loukas-Karlsson told the offender he would have "a lot to think about over the next several years".

"You must pay your debt to society," the judge told March.

With time already served on remand, March will become eligible for parole in May 2028.

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