A Chinese serial rapist who drugged, sexually assaulted and filmed at least 15 sleeping women in Melbourne is trying to get his sentence slashed due to a supposed sex disorder.
Migration agent Xiaodong “Frank” Hu, 39, who holds both Chinese and Australian passports, was jailed for a maximum 29 years – the longest sentence for sexual offending in Victoria’s history – in May, 2023, for his attacks on seven women at his Collins Street office.
Most of his victims were young women on student visas on their first day at work, and analysis of the married father-of-two’s phone found 1949 photos and 232 videos of him drugging and raping 15 different victims, eight more than he was convicted for, and police believe that could be just the “tip of the iceberg”.
But Hu will appeal the sentence next month, and is planning to argue that it was manifestly excessive, as his so-called somnophilic disorder – a sexual interest in a person who is unconscious – was not fairly taken into account, The Herald Sun reported.
According to sentencing documents, consultant psychiatrist Dr Adam Deacon said in a report tendered to the court that Hu told him he developed a “fetish” for sleeping and unconscious women.
“Hu reported that the stimulus to his decision to continue engaging in the conduct of administering soporific medications was in two interrelated, but mutually exclusive parts,” the report read.
“He reported that he developed an attraction to women sleeping, but this then extended to him being deviantly sexually aroused by the same visual stimulus. The
repetitive nature of his sexual misconduct likely precipitated and perpetuated the development of a specific sexual fetish consistent with somnophilia.”
Hu’s barrister Chris Terry then argued that the “rare and unusual disorder” made his client an “unsuitable vehicle for general deterrence” and that it impaired Hu’s ability to “make calm and rational choices”.
But County Court judge Trevor Wraight QC rejected the defence’s arguments, saying Hu’s offending was not limited to a single occasion, his conduct was “cold, calculated and repetitive”, and that it involved “considerable planning, multiple victims and extended over a number of years”.
“Thus, your offending on one view, demonstrates very calm and rational conduct,” he said in sentencing.
Hu will also argue in his appeal that not enough weight was given to his early guilty plea.
The Melbourne-based immigration agent uploaded photos and videos of the rapes to a Chinese website, and was eventually caught when one of his victims became suspicious, found the site in his browser history and discovered photos of herself and another one of Hu’s employees on his profile.
In a police interview he admitted having sex with the woman, but claimed she fell asleep midway through and said: “When she fall asleep it doesn’t mean stop.” He also accused her of lying before eventually pleading guilty.
Header image: Left, Hu during a police interview. Right, the squalid office where some of the rapes took place (Courts Victoria).
