Joshua Stephen Morrison: Masked monster who repeatedly raped young mum in her home hit with huge jail term

A sadistic “monster” who destroyed a young mum’s life by subjecting her to every woman’s greatest fear has been verbally torn to shreds by a judge and slapped with a massive 19-year jail term. The 23-year-old victim had just dropped off her three-year-old boy at day care and was home alone south of Perth in May last year when she heard a noise and went to investigate. In the hallway stood a masked intruder — Joshua Stephen Morrison — holding a 30cm weapon. “There you were,” District Court of WA Judge Linda Black said at his recent sentencing. “To use the word that your own lawyer used, the monster who had entered her house, the monster carrying a sharpened blade, a monster carrying a pair of pliers, a monster who decided to rape her. “It is the biggest fear that a woman will often have when alone in a house.” The first thing Morrison did was ask whether anyone else was there before taking her to the bedroom and threw her phone to the ground. He ignored her telling him to get out and immediately began sexually assaulting her. The attack was repeated, prolonged and merciless, with the victim “violated in the worst possible ways”, the judge said. “You ignored her tears, you ignored her cries of pain, you ignored her cries to stop,” she said. He then told her to get in the shower so she would wash away evidence but she locked the bathroom door, escaped and ran half-dressed to a nearby church where she pleaded for help from strangers. “After all that you had done to her, you stole her phone, you stole her jewellery, you stole her car,” Judge Black said. When police spotted him a short time later, he sped off, sparking a six-minute chase officers had no choice but to engage in given the seriousness of the manhunt. Morrison flew past other cars on Forrest Highway, reaching 160km/h in a 110km/h zone. At Mandurah Police Station, he admitted he was coming down from methylamphetamine, remarking: “For what it’s worth, this a headache.” “Don’t insult the court’s intelligence, Mr Morrison, by pretending that you were off your head on drugs and didn’t know what you were doing,” Judge Black said. “Every single step you took in that house was cold and calculated and rational.” The victim detailed the immense impact of Morrison’s crimes in a statement, saying her hair “fell out in clumps” and she was now heavily medicated, suffering mental health issues. She was forced to undergo multiple STD checks and described telling her son that they could “never go back to that house” was “a new level of heartbreak”. “All these months later, he still asks ‘Why can’t we go home?’,” she wrote. “I no longer recognise the person I see in the mirror. The love in my eyes has faded, replaced by emptiness and a profound loss.” Judge Black said Morrison “chose to destroy her life that day”, describing his offending as brutal and “clearly horrifically serious”. “You’re going to have a long time to contemplate your actions in prison ... you’ll have pretty much the rest of your adult life in a jail cell,” she said. The 37-year-old will be eligible for parole after serving 17 years. Sexual Assault Resource Centre 1800 199 888