Serial rapist Michael Anthony Woodhall jailed for more than 20y for brutal, terrifying sex attacks in 1990s

For almost three decades serial rapist Michael Anthony Woodhall went unpunished for the brutal and terrifying attacks he unleashed on four innocent women in the 1990s. But, finally, on Friday, he was jailed for a staggering 20 years and three months for the shocking crimes that devastated the lives of his victims forever. The District Court of WA was told the now 52-year-old tied up three of the women, threatened to kill or harm them then raped and violated them. One victim had a knife held against her throat, while two others were threatened verbally with a weapon but none actually saw it. During each of the attacks, the father-of-one left DNA evidence behind which the court was told was unable to be tested at the time. But after WA Police cold case detectives began testing the samples a few years ago using the same investigative genetic genealogy technique that caught the Golden State Killer in the US, Woodhall was arrested. He was the first person in WA to be charged using the technique. The court was told Woodhall’s first attack took place on March 19, 1995 in the suburb of Carine, when he was 22. Woodhall grabbed a 49-year-old woman who was walking through Carine Regional Open Space from behind and placed her in a choke hold so she could not breathe. He then held the knife against her throat then told her: “Shut up, don’t say a word. Can you feel this? I will kill you.” The woman pleaded with Woodhall not to hurt her, and revealed she had been in hospital with a heart condition, but he ignored her pleas and dragged her into bushland where he sexually assaulted her. Almost exactly a year later, on March 18, 1996, Woodhall broke into the Scarborough home of a 19-year-old woman and sexually assaulted her. The court was told the woman woke up to the father-of-one lying next to her on her bed. He then placed a hand over her mouth and pressure on her back then bound her arms with stockings. He then told her not to make any noise and claimed he had a knife, then raped her but the court was told he was unable to stay erect. He then repeatedly tried to rape her but was unsuccessful. Adding to the woman’s distress was that police at the time did not believe her claim and she was charged with making a false report and stood trial but was acquitted. Woodhall’s next attack took place almost two years later on February 4, 1998. An 18-year-old woman who had just returned to her Crawley student dorm after a night socialising with friends, woke to find Woodhall standing in the corner of her room. The court was told at first the woman thought she was seeing things and closed her eyes but when she opened them again Woodhall had made her way to the bed and placed a hand over her mouth then told her to “shut up or die. I could kill you now”. He then bound her hands with stockings and raped her and indecently assaulted her. Four months later, on June 14, 1998, Woodhall broke into the Kelmscott home of a 23-year-old woman covered in a balaclava. The court was told the woman initially heard a noise and went to her bedroom petrified and lay on her bed. Woodhall then made his way into the bedroom and told the woman: “You’re f***** bitch”. He then jumped on her bed causing the woman to scream loudly. Woodhall tried to stop her by pushing her head into the pillow prompting her to bite down on his thumb. He then fled the house. Terrified the woman called the police then discovered a cigarette butt on her living room floor. The court was told he was found outside her bedroom window. Prosecutor Kim Jennings told the court those cigarette butts as well as samples taken from the three other women were all tested by cold case detectives and matched a DNA profile taken from Woodhall following his arrest in March 2023. Woodhall’s lawyer, Simon Watters, told the court his client recognised the affect his offending had on their lives and that his guilty plea was acceptance of his crimes. In sentencing Woodhall, Judge Mara Barone took into account his guilty plea but she said she could not accept he was genuinely remorseful. She also read out the victim impact statements from all four women which revealed how each of their lives had been destroyed by his offending. She told Woodhall he had robbed each one of them not only of their sense of safety and who they were before the assaults but also of a carefree future. She said he had “the considerable benefit of the last 27 to 30 years” of working, getting married and having children but the same could not be said of each of his victims. “Their lives were forever frozen in time,” she added. Judge Barone jailed Woodhall for 20 years, backdated his sentence to the day of his arrest and made him eligible for parole.