PHILLIP Gordon Lindsay, 52, was found guilty in November of raping five women 20 years ago - today the Supreme Court heard from his victims.
Between February 1990 and March 1993 Lindsay broke into five homes and raped the occupants, DNA evidence linked all the crimes in 2005 but Lindsay was not arrested until 2010.
Lindsay pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of rape, five counts of burglary and one count of false imprisonment.
Today his victims said they were relieved that he had been finally caught.
One woman said for the 20 years he was at large, Lindsay remained "faceless and nameless" and could have been anyone on the street.
She said, prior to the rape, she loved her home and felt safe and happy there.
After the rape in 1992 the woman learned how to shoot and slept with a gun.
"I believed no-one, not even the police, could protect me. I believed it was up to me to protect myself," she told the court.
"I knew that if the rapist came back I would shoot him."
The woman was a flying instructor before the rape but became disconnected from her colleagues and afraid to walk across the tarmac at night.
"I don't fly anymore but I always thought it would be part of my life until I die," she said.
The woman said she hoped Lindsay was given a sentence that showed victims were more important than the criminals.
"Women have the right to feel safe in their own home and criminals have to be punished when they violate this right," she said.
"The terror and horror I felt after the attack is still with me...The world is unsafe and in it lurks dangerous, violent and evil people."
Another one of Lindsay's victims was a newlywed and new mother when the attack occurred.
"My children should have had a mother who was there for them...they didn't," she said.
"You made me feel like the criminal when I did nothing wrong, you did."
The woman said she no longer had to feel that her rapist would return.
"I take back control of my life from you and the pain and suffering you caused... you will now find out what it is like to have a life without control."
