A former soldier and kickboxer has admitted to attacking a teenager so violently more than 20 years ago she was left with traumatic brain damage and forced to eat from a syringe.
On March 3 1996, a 19-year-old woman was bashed and indecently attacked outside of a Parramatta nightclub and John Clayton Sims has finally admitted to the attack that required the young woman to have multiple surgeries.
The breakthrough in the cold case came after police linked Sims with the vicious assault with just a few drops of blood found on a twig and leaf at the scene, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Talking to detectives, the now 45-year-old said: “I just lost it. I don’t know what happened. I just … turned into a devil or something”, court documents reveal.
At the time, Sims was a driver for the Australian Defence Force and a high-level kickboxer, with police claiming he was probably using steroids.
Court documents state he met his victim on the dance floor at now-defunct Kicks nightclub at Parramatta Leagues Club while she was with a female friend.
“[He] told her that his name was John Sampson and that he played for the St George Dragons,” the documents read.
Sims then told the girl he knew her boyfriend and alluded that he was cheating on her.
When the woman followed him outside to find out more about her boyfriend’s alleged infidelity, she was punched in the face and knocked out cold.
NSW Police Media.
Sims then dragged her to a dark, isolated grassy embankment where he committed an act of indecency.
Police found the woman hours later, half-dressed and with a battered and bloody face.
At the hospital, she was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury as well as a broken nose, jaw and eye socket that required multiple surgeries.
“She was unable to eat unassisted and was fed via a syringe, being unable to use a straw,” court documents state.
NSW Police Media.
“The victim required assistance going to the toilet and was frightened to be left alone.”
Despite the investigation being called off after a month with no leads, it was reopened in late 2015 when the small trail of blood from a twig and leaf at the scene revealed a DNA match and identified Sims as a suspect.
The same month, Sims turned up at a Bankstown police station to ask if he was “wanted for anything”, but didn’t confess to any crime.
When further DNA testing matched Sims to blood found on the victim’s underwear, he was extradited from Adelaide to NSW and pleaded guilty to maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm, attempted rape and committing an act of indecency against the teenager.
He will be sentenced on October 20.
