One of the four Good Samaritans who chased down a man who tried to rape a heavily pregnant woman along a Brunswick bike path said he could never have turned a blind eye, particularly after the rape and murder of Jill Meagher so close by.
On Friday, Coburg man Casey Tennent, 21, was sentenced to 23 months in jail and a four-year community corrections order in the Melbourne County Court after pleading guilty to the attempted rape of a 31-year-old nurse in April.
The victim, who was riding home from work on the Upfield bike path in Melbourne's inner north on April 24, was knocked off her bike by Tennent shortly before 11pm.
Tennent played cricket for Brunswick and had just left his coach's house where he'd been drinking.
The attack occurred a few hundred metres from where Adrian Bayley took Jill Meagher's life in 2012.
Father-of-two Andrew Pappas was one of four men who came to the victim's aid before chasing and apprehending Tennent in a nearby alleyway.
The 53-year-old disability service worker was riding home from the football that night when he saw a bike lying across the path.
"I thought someone had a flat tyre or something and had fallen off," Mr Pappas said.
"As I got closer, I saw what I thought was an argument and as I got closer, I realised it wasn't an argument, it was a fight."
Tennent had dragged the victim into a small alcove of an apartment building along the path.
She was on the ground on her hands and knees, trying to protect her stomach, as Tennent attempted to pull her pants down.
"I yelled out 'Hey! What are you doing?' and she said 'Help, he is trying to rape me!'," Mr Pappas said.
Three men living in the apartment building also heard her scream.
One of them, who didn't want to be identified, said he went out on his balcony and saw his two neighbours also trying to work out what was going on below.
He said they all looked at each and in an instant, collectively ran down the stairs.
By the time they reached the bike path, Mr Pappas was in pursuit of Tennent, who had crossed the train line at Anstey station and was running opposite Mr Pappas who was on the Sydney Road side.
The trio from the apartment caught up to Mr Pappas as they ran over the line at Tinning Street, following Tennent into an alleyway. Tennent punched Mr Pappas before all four took Tennent to the ground and held him down until police arrived.
Mr Pappas said he could never have not stopped and helped.
"My character wouldn't have let me ride by. It just wouldn't have happened," he said.
"I didn't want him to actually get away and I wanted to at least try to apprehend him or follow him ... I thought instinctively, this is what I need to do."
Mr Pappas said he couldn't help but think of what happened to Ms Meagher, while one of the men from the apartment said Ms Meagher's rape and murder changed him and contributed to his reaction to the attempted rape this year.
"After what happened to Jill, as a community we all have a responsibility for everyone else in our community," he said.
The police officer who investigated the Upfield bike path assault, Fawkner sexual offence unit detective Katharine Lavars, said the men did an "amazing job".
"There's no doubt that without their help this investigation would have been very different," Detective Senior Constable Lavars said.
The men have been in touch with the woman they saved, who thanked them for what they did.
"I think that's the big thing, that I did make a difference and it worked out OK," Mr Pappas said.
Mr Pappas has since been involved with Moreland City Council's 'MoreArt' project to bring the community back to the bike path, including a lighting installation on silos at Tinning Street in December.
The victim's baby has since been born. It was her second child.
In sentencing, Judge Barbara Cotterell said the attack had a "devastating" effect on the woman's life.
She had first believed she was going to be murdered, the judge said, and had felt a sense of relief when he began to try and rape her because "at least she might survive".
"This is an extremely serious offence," Judge Cotterell said.
"A completely random attack on a person simply going about her business."
Judge Cotterell took into account Tennent's young age, early guilty plea, remorse and the fact he had no prior convictions in her sentence. She placed him on the sex offender's register for eight years.
The victim's impact statement was read aloud in court last week.
She told Tennent that her "greatest hope is you never do this to anyone else, as recovery from the attack has been a terrible experience that I hope no one else has to go through".