Two Women Recall Confrontations With Joel Russo, Accused Of Rape On Merri Creek Trail

Two women have recalled frightening confrontations they had with a man similar in description to the man charged with raping a jogger near Melbourne's Merri Creek.

A man similar in description to Joel Russo -- who has been charged with the rape and abducting of a woman jogging on Melbourne's Merri Creek trail on Dec. 3 -- was described by two other women who experienced separate frightening encounters the same day.

One woman has come forward about the incident to the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday about how the man had got into her car, while another woman said that she drove away when he tried to open the car’s front passenger door, according to AAP Newswire cited by Shepparton News.

Russo, 26, has been charged with abducting the jogger, repeatedly raping her, choking her, and holding her head under water. The brutal attack occured after 6:30 p.m. AEDT.

The jogger was able to break free when she convinced the attacker to walk her to a nearby McDonald’s in Brunswick East, where she screamed for help and fled, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

The two women recalled what they experienced with the man between 5 and 5:30 p.m. on Bell Street in Coburg, near the trail where the jogger was abducted. Both could not identify or name Russo before the magistrate.

According to the Daily Mail, one of the women, Juen Mei Ding, a doctor, said that a man opened her car’s front passenger door, got in, moved her laptop aside, and began a conversation with her, and described her attempt to push him out of the car. The man then got out of her car, Ding said.

“I called my friend and she said to call the police,” she said while crying to the court over a video conference. “She said someone in a similar area got sexually assaulted the same day and that made me so worried it may be related,” Ding said. The doctor described the man to police as appearing a “bit slow” because of his speech.

The other woman, Emma Baldacchino, a therapist, said that as she got into her car, a man approach her. She described him as “wobbly on his feet.” “It put me on edge the way he was walking. Just a strange way,” she said.

When the man wasn’t able to open the front passenger door, he bent down to look through the opened window, and asked, “Do you have the time?” Baldacchino said. She then told him what time it was and drove away. Baldacchino contacted the police the next day.

But both women gave inconsistent descriptions about the man. One said he had collar-length brown hair, wore a black T-shirt and wore a black cap turned backward, while the other said he had short brown hair and wore a light-colored T-shirt.

The committal hearing, which will decide whether Russo will have a trial, is set to continue on Tuesday. According to Russo’s lawyer, Tanya Skvortsova, he has bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, an intellectual disability and an acquired brain injury.

Russo also has been charged with attempted robbery in the city of Carlton on the day of the alleged rape as well as the day after.