A Nepalese immigrant boss who raped a young female employee on the floor of his Sydney office on her first day of work will spend less than three years in jail.
The cleaning company owner was found guilty by a jury of raping the 18-year-old woman after plying her with alcohol, and was sentenced to two years and nine months in the NSW District Court in early December, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The victim, who had arrived in Australia with her older sister just three weeks earlier, had a trial shift at the company in Sydney’s inner west on a Friday in mid-2023 and was given a job starting the following Monday.
But at 1.30pm on her first day she was called into her boss’s office for a “party” where a group of employees drank scotch and tequila and the new employee was pressured to join in despite saying she weighed only 51kg and had only had an apple for breakfast.
After she vomited in the bathroom her boss led her into the office, removed her clothes and raped her.
During the attack the victim’s sister called, but the rapist answered because she was too drunk to speak, before hanging up and continuing with the assault.
Her sister later found her at the train station, and reported the rape to police, who raided the office and found blood, semen and saliva on the floor.
Judge Michael King said the sex predator knew his victim was heavily intoxicated and unable to consent.
“There was nothing in which would suggest that she might have consenting or been willing to consent in circumstances where he was [significantly] older than her,” he said.
“She was an entirely new employee and [it was] in circumstances where she had worked at the business for just one day. The accused was aware that she was substantially affected by alcohol and was not consenting to the sexual intercourse.
“She became, in effect, frozen and unable to move and wasn’t aware of what was happening.”
Judge King sentenced the man to five years and six months’ jail, with a non-parole period of two years and nine months, after which time he is likely to be deported.
The rapist moved to Australia from Nepal in 2019 to join his wife, who had arrived four months earlier.
Header image: Downing Centre District Court (J Bar, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons – cropped)
