A woman has applauded as Melbourne’s ‘Tinder rapist’ was jailed for more than 14 years for attacks on four women between 2014 and 2016.
Melbourne’s ‘Tinder rapist,’ who forced himself on women he met through the popular dating app, will spend up to 14 years and nine months behind bars.
Glenn Hartland, 44, admitted raping three women and indecently assaulting a fourth between 2014 and 2016 at the end of brief, intimate relationships following his online seduction.
County Court Judge Paul Higham on Friday said the Moonee Ponds man’s offending had reduced strong and confident women to fearful shells of their former selves, as he ordered Hartland to serve at least 11 years in prison.
One woman whooped and another applauded as the sentence was handed down, but the judge warned them “this is not a public spectacle.”
Hartland raped his victims in their homes when he felt dejected in the relationships.
He also committed an indecent assault in the toilet of a St Kilda hotel, where he pinned a woman against the wall of a cubicle and ripped off her underwear.
Judge Higham said that woman’s ordeal didn’t end there, but continued when Hartland brandished her underwear “as a trophy” in the hotel and under the nose of his friend.
He also confessed to using a carriage service to harass a woman between February and April 2016, and distributing intimate images of one of his victims in May 2016. Two charges of breaching court orders were also admitted.
The judge said Hartland had expressed no remorse and was a high risk of sexual re-offending.
During an earlier plea hearing, one woman spoke of how Hartland would combine “grandiose romantic gestures” and charm with threats of suicide and mood swings in a bid to control his victims.
Another described him as a “prolific predator” and “master manipulator.”
One victim has since taken her own life, with her brother previously detailing the “permanent and unforgivable” damage on her family.
The surviving women said the attacks left them riddled with self doubt and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Hartland’s lawyer claimed the rapist was now “appalled by what he’s done.”
