Victorian man jailed for 'humiliating and degrading' rapes from mid-80s

A man has been jailed more than three decades after he raped two women in Victoria, thanks in part to DNA from a NSW drug offence.

Pieter George Hendriks targeted two unsuspecting women and threatened them with a knife before robbing and raping them in 1983 and 1984.

He wiped forensic material from the scenes of the attacks and his "humiliating and degrading" crimes went unanswered until 2012, when he was arrested for drug offences in NSW and DNA samples were matched.

Hendriks was jailed for 12 years, with a nine-year minimum, for the attacks.

Now aged 55, he was a boilermaker in his mid 20s and married when he approached his first victim at a Frankston jeans store in November 1983, the Victorian County Court heard.

Judge Frank Saccardo said Hendriks looked through some jackets before returning.

He told the store attendant he wanted to buy a pair of jeans but then came up behind her, shoved socks in her mouth, held a knife to her and threatened to kill her while demanding cash.

He then raped her in another room while holding the knife against the woman, the judge said.

In January 1984, Hendriks got into a parked car in Frankston armed with a knife, told the woman to drive to another car park and demanded her purse.

Judge Saccardo said Hendriks then raped the woman, who believed he was going to kill her as he continued to hold the knife.

Both women had suffered significant psychological trauma as a result, the court heard.

Hendriks pleaded guilty to a total of six robbery, rape and indecent assault related offences.

Judge Saccardo said he had shown remorse and utter regret for his abhorrent behaviour.

There were no allegations Hendriks had committed further similar offences after the historic rapes at Frankston.