NSW: Alleged rapist applies to change guilty plea

AAP General News (Australia)
12-06-2001
NSW: Alleged rapist applies to change guilty plea

SYDNEY, Dec 6 AAP - A Sydney builder who had pleaded guilty to raping two women today
applied to change his plea, claiming he was affected by drugs when he appeared in court.

If the application is granted, eight victims would be forced to testify about what
police alleged was a two-year campaign of sexually terrorising, kidnapping and robbing
women in Sydney's west.

Anthony James Daley, 27, had pleaded guilty to threatening two women with knives and
raping them in Sydney's west in September 1998 and May 2000 in Parramatta and Westmead.

He had also been charged with two further aggravated sexual assaults, robbery whilst
armed and detain for advantage.

The Bidwell man was due to be sentenced last July.

Appearing in the NSW Supreme Court today, Daley said his legal team had pressured him
to enter a guilty plea, claiming police had conclusive DNA evidence against him.

"Why should I plead guilty when I'm not the perpetrator of these crimes. It (DNA) could
not be mine when I'm not the perpetrator of these attacks. I've said that since I was
incarcerated," he said.

At his hearing he was high on valium and marijuana and the first he knew of his plea
was when fellow prisoners read an account of it to him in the next day's newspaper, he
claimed.

"I was smashed out of my head all of that day. If this court is going to take advantage
of a man that's not justice," he said.

The court was told last May the builder preyed on women in the Westmead, Leichhardt
and Parramatta areas and last struck on July 8 last year.

The eight victims were allegedly attacked, threatened with knives and screwdrivers
and robbed of handbags, cash and mobile phones.

Justice Carolyn Simpson adjourned the hearing until Monday.

AAP dmc/hn/jnb/sb

KEYWORD: DALEY

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