A Dandenong man has been jailed up to 11 years for his “calculated” and “predatory” rape of an “extremely intoxicated” stranger outside a CBD nightclub.
Asgher Essa, 27, was found guilty by a Victorian County Court jury of rape, assault with intent to commit a sexual offence and abduction for a sexual purpose.
CCTV footage of Essa – a strong young man arranging the victim’s “limp” body for his sexual pleasure – was an “unbelievably bleak” experience, sentencing judge Fiona Todd said on 1 February.
The “completely vulnerable” victim had no memory of the events and was in no state to give consent.
“You knew that to be the case. You perceived her state and you held that knowledge from the time that you said ‘Come here baby’.”
Shortly before the assault in May 2019, Essa was taken to the first aid room at the rear of Ms Collins nightclub after being punched twice in the face by the victim’s boyfriend.
The boyfriend was ejected from the nightclub. Meanwhile Essa’s eventual victim was taken by security staff to the same room as Essa, Judge Todd said.
The judge noted security had been “manhandling” her in a “disturbing” manner and “bundled” her “violently” into the room.
As the victim moved towards Essa, he said either “Come here baby” or “Come in baby”.
“Unbelievably” surmising that Essa and the victim were together, security staff dispatched the pair out the back door to an alleyway off Market Street.
At the time, the victim’s boyfriend was waiting at the front of the nightclub, with his messages to her unanswered.
As the “disoriented” victim tried to re-enter the club, Essa led her to sit on a concrete fence in the alleyway and touched her in a “range of ways”.
The partially-naked Essa was interrupted and moved on by a nightclub worker who said “you can’t do that here”.
Holding the “unsteady” and “collapsing” victim up, Essa walked her down a hotel car park ramp 20 metres away.
He tore apart her clothes, laid her “limp” body onto the concrete, and raped her as she lapsed in and out of consciousness.
An unidentified woman passing by – “to whom the community owes a debt of gratitude” – called triple-0, Judge Todd said.
Paramedics arrived and took the victim to a hospital resuscitation unit. Essa briefly spoke to them and walked back to the nightclub.
Experts estimated that the victim’s blood-alcohol level was at least 0.23 at the time – five hours later, a hospital test found she was 0.18.
In her impact statement, the victim produced an account of “extraordinary suffering and resilience”, the judge said.
She noted the victim’s self-described guilt, eating disorders, anxiety and depression before recognising that it was not her fault.
Meanwhile, Essa had shown no insight or remorse. His claim that he followed the victim’s sexual directions was not believed by the jury, the judge said.
“She is entirely without blame,” Judge Todd emphasized. “The fault is entirely on you, Mr Essa.”
In mitigation, the judge noted Essa’s lack of prior convictions as well as his brutal childhood as a Hazara targeted by the Taliban and its allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
At 16, he survived an attack while visiting his father’s grave in Pakistan. It prompted his mother to take a loan to pay people smugglers to get him to safety by boat to Australia.
He’d since been granted a permanent protection visa, pending an application for citizenship. After a initial rejection, he was making his second application for his sick mother and siblings to join him in Australia.
As a result of his conviction, those plans were now in “disarray”, with Essa now at risk of deportation, Judge Todd noted.
In 2016, Essa built a once-successful tiling business that employed seven people. But in 2019, it collapsed under financial pressures, and his relationship with his fiancée also failed.
The judge accepted Essa’s diagnosed PTSD, major depression and adjustment disorder would make jail more difficult for him. But these didn’t reduce his culpability.
He was jailed for slightly more than the standard 10-year sentence for rape.
Sentenced as a serious sex offender, Essa will be eligible for parole in seven years.
