More than 30 years after his crimes, Greek taxi driver Theodoros Tsalkos has been found guilty of the rape of two teenage girls on May 7, 1987 while posing as an undercover police officer in St Kilda, Victoria, The Herald Sun has reported.
The now 61-year-old man was found guilty by a jury after DNA testing linked him to the rapes of two girls aged 15 and 16, who had made a “brief foray” into sex work.
One of his victims, then 16, told the court that 35 years on from the crime, she still hasn’t healed from his “sick, sadistic game.”
“Most people get to move on from the mistakes they made in their teenage years – because of you, I’ve never been able to,” she said. “I forgive myself, I will never forgive you.”
The daughter of the other teenager, who has since died of a rare illness, expressed her frustration for the fact that her mother “couldn’t see justice with her own eyes.”
Tsalkos was initially charged two years ago after DNA swabs taken from the girls and frozen were matched with him.
On January 18, a jury found him guilty of two counts of rape, two counts of kidnapping and four counts of gross indecency with a person under the age of 16.
Defence barrister Sai Ranjit told the court Tsalkos was “a different man” to three decades ago when he committed the crimes and asked for the “benefit of the doubt” to be given to his client.
Judge Rosemary Carlin will sentence Tsalkos at a later date.
Source: Herald Sun
