By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A father of six who lured, imprisoned and repeatedly raped a foreign backpacker for six hours in a Keysborough motel room has been jailed.
Alimadad Mokhtari, 42, had been found guilty by a County Court of Victoria jury of four counts of rape, as well as sexual assault and false imprisonment.
In sentencing on 27 February, Judge Scott Johns noted Mokhtari had provided no explanation for his “predatory” and “violent” crimes.
The judge said this was presumably because he maintained his innocence.
In the leadup to the attack on 6 May 2016, Mokhtari responded to the 23-year-old Lithuanian national’s ‘work wanted’ ad on Gumtree.
He offered her a sales managerial role at a Melbourne tyre company and to accommodate her with other employees.
She left behind her boyfriend, flying from Brisbane to meet Mokhtari at Melbourne Airport.
“There was no genuine job offer,” Judge Johns said.
“Instead you had engaged in an elaborate ruse designed to isolate your victim and ply her with alcohol and methampethamine in the hope you’d obtain sexual gratification.”
During the attack, a drug-affected Mokhtari failed to respond to the victim’s trauma and distress other than in a “base and callous manner”.
At one stage, Mokhtari threatened her to stop screaming or he’d put a towel in her mouth and beat her to death.
In the room, she pleaded for Mokhtari to kill her now rather than waiting to kill her afterwards.
The victim escaped only after a struggle in which she gouged Mokhtari’s eyes. She fled out of the room naked and flagged down a passing car.
She received numerous injuries, Judge Johns said.
“You showed a complete disregard to her fundamental rights as a human being.”
In her victim impact statement, she told of feeling “broken” and a loss of confidence and self-belief.
Since the ordeal, she’d suffered panic attacks and anxiety. The world seemed a different place.
Mokhtari denied the allegations, claiming he had no recollection after the victim drugged him with a tablet.
Police had found Viagra and ice in Mokhtari’s pockets at the scene.
Born in Afghanistan, he’d assisted United Nations Special Forces in recruiting local troops in his home country.
His service helped him gain permanent residency in Australia after he fled the Taliban in Pakistan, Judge Johns noted.
With the aid of people smugglers, he arrived on Christmas Island in 2012.
He’d since been joined by his wife and family in Australia.
He’d been active in the Afghan community in Dandenong, assisting military colleagues to migrate to Australia and helping set up the Rasul Akram Centre.
His citizenship application had stalled as a result of the charges. He faces possible deportation after his jail term, the court was told.
Without prior convictions, much of Mokhtari’s personal history was “creditworthy”, Judge Johns said.
“It is difficult to understand how someone who has known fear, vulnerability and isolation could inflict such crimes on an innocent other.”
Judge Johns said the situation was a tragedy for Mokhtari’s wife and children. His wife, on Centrelink payments, struggled to pay off the family home.
Mokhtari was jailed for up to 11 years, with a non-parole period of seven years, nine months.
He will be registered as a serious sex offender for 15 years.
