An Afghan refugee who spent less than two years behind bars for raping a teenage woman has been granted permission to return to the town where his victim lives.
Faridoon Khaksar, whose age is unknown but is believed to be 24 or 25, walked free from court in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, last month after Judge Michael McHugh sentenced him to time served despite a report warning the sex predator’s risk of reoffending was high.
Khaksar last year pleaded guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent over the 2022 rape where he led his intoxicated victim out of the Coast Hotel and into his car before forcing her to perform oral sex, pulling her pants down and sexually assaulting her.
He denied the charges for almost two years, and spent 22 months in jail after being remanded in custody until being released on bail in August and moving to Sydney to work as a truck driver.
Judge McHugh said he was compelled to take Khaksar’s “deprived background” into account while sentencing him in the Coffs Harbour District Court last Tuesday, The Coffs Harbour Advocate reported.
He noted bombings were a daily occurrence for Khaksar growing up in war-torn Pakistan, that he recalled seeing heads and limbs in the street, and that Khaksar’s father, who had one leg blown off, would beat his mother with the metal sticks he needed to walk.
Khaksar’s lawyer argued that his client, who came to Australia in 2014, should be allowed to return to Coffs Harbour since it was the “only hometown he has ever known” and because his two brothers live there.
Judge McHugh ruled that Khaksar should be allowed to travel to the town, but gave him a two-year apprehended violence order with conditions banning him from approaching his victim.
“If you see the victim anywhere, you turn the other way and walk away,” he told Khaksar.
Judge McHugh also took into account Khaksar’s guilty plea and lack of prior offending in sentencing him to one year, 10 months and 20 days, and released him on parole.
Faridoon’s boxer and gym instructor brother Javed, 26, also has convictions for stalking and intimidating a woman and driving a car to menace her near the same hotel.
Javed was found guilty in January 2023 and sentenced to a 15-month community corrections order. He was also banned from driving for 12 months.
Header image: Left, right, Faridoon Khaksar (Facebook).
