Duo avoid jail after disabled women held captive and raped

A disabled woman has avoided jail for holding two intellectually impaired women captive in northern Victoria and raping them over nearly two months.

Kimberley Cramp, 28, and her partner-carer Alexander Trewin, 27, befriended the women before conning them into going to the couple's Wodonga home, where the victims were held between August 15 and October 12, 2016.

Cramp digitally raped both women, then aged 22 and 26 and with intellectual disabilities, Victoria's County Court was told on Friday.

When one of the women told Cramp to stop, she replied "I'm helping you and I'm not stopping" and in another instance told the woman her mother had said it was OK.

On another occasion Cramp removed the victim's intra-uterine device as she slept. She told her captive victims "don't tell anyone what I've done".

Cramp and Trewin each pleaded guilty to two counts of false imprisonment and two of theft, while Cramp also pleaded guilty to three counts of rape.

Judge Richard Smith said Trewin helped Cramp prevent the vulnerable victims from leaving.

The duo took the women to Centrelink to obtain benefits but kept the money and bought household items including a suitcase and clothes dryer.

Over the two months, Cramp and Trewin took more than $10,000 from the victims.

Cramp was sentenced to a two-year community corrections order and Trewin to an 18-month community corrections order.

The court was told Cramp was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a child, had a mild intellectual disability, an antisocial personality disorder and received a disability pension.

Trewin, living with Cramp and her mother, had a mild intellectual disability and mental health problems.

Judge Smith said the duo's disabilities and mental health issues meant a prison term would be more onerous.

But he was "concerned by the apparent lack of remorse shown, especially by Ms Cramp," who had claimed her victims wanted to travel to Wodonga and had multiple chances to leave.

She also said one of the victims had asked her to remove the IUD and that both couldn't be trusted with money.

When the victims said they wanted to go home, Judge Smith said Cramp replied "you have to stay here".

She also wrote the message "we're fine" for one of the women to read to a family member when they called, before switching off both victims' mobile phones.

Judge Smith said statements from the victims made it clear they were "both scared and distressed ... they were vulnerable to being taken advantage of and as such were soft targets".

The women were removed from Cramp and Trewin after the four visited one of the victims' families.

The judge said he would have sent Cramp and Trewin to prison had they not pleaded guilty.

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