Sydney gang rapes
Encyclopedia
The Sydney gang rapes were a series of gang rape attacks committed by a group of up to fourteen Lebanese Australian
men led by Bilal Skaf
against European Australian
women and teenage girls, as young as 14, in Sydney
Australia in 2000. The crimes—described as ethnically motivated hate crimes by officials and commentators —were covered very extensively by the news media, and prompted the passing of new laws. The nine men convicted of the gang rapes were sentenced to a total of "more than 240 years" in jail. According to court transcripts Judge Michael Finnane described the rapes as events "you hear about or read about only in the context of wartime atrocities".
There was evidence to convict only nine men of the fourteen suspects. Sentences totaled 240 years in prison.
categorised the crimes as racially motivated hate crimes The Sydney Morning Herald
reported that the rapists had stated to a victim, during the attack, "You deserve it because you're an Australian" and "I'm going to fuck you Leb style". Two thirds of Muslim and Arab Australians said that they experienced an increase in racial vilification
towards them after a number of events including the 11 September 2001 attacks in the USA, the Bali bombings
, and these rapes.
, dramatically increasing the sentences for gang rapists by creating a new category of crime known as aggravated sexual assault in company.
Also, in the course of one of the trials the defendants refused counsel as they believed that "all lawyers were against Muslim
s". This led to the contentious prospect of the defendants being able to cross-examine the witnesses—the victims—themselves, a situation that was averted by further legislation being put through the New South Wales parliament.
Actions taken by government ministers, including Premier of New South Wales Bob Carr
, who publicly identified the perpetrators' background, led to controversy. Ethnic community group leaders, including Keysar Trad
of the Lebanese Muslim Association, complained that Carr was smearing the entire Lebanese Muslim community with the crimes of a few of its members, and that his public comments would stir up ethnic hatred
.
The first court case heard under the new sentencing regime concerned the gang rapes
of two women by Pakistani and Nepalese
immigrants in Ashfield
on 28 July 2002.
and mobile phone
s to orchestrate the attacks, utilizing this technology to phone ahead to other attackers to co-ordinate transport of rape gang members to the locations where women were being held. Authorities later released some of this material, recovered from the rapists' mobile phones. The attackers texted such messages as "When you are feeling down ...bash a Christian
or Catholic
and lift up". and "I've got a slut
with me bro, come to Punchbowl
".
Lebanese Australian
A Lebanese Australian is an Australian citizen or permanent resident of Lebanese descent. The community is multi-religious, and includes a Christian, mostly Maronite Catholic, majority, as well as a large Muslim minority of both the Shia and Sunni branches of Islam, and various other Christian and...
men led by Bilal Skaf
Bilal Skaf
Bilal Skaf is a serial gang rapist who led groups of Lebanese Australian men who committed gang rape attacks against women in 2000....
against European Australian
European Australian
A European Australian is a citizen or resident of Australia who has origins in any of the original peoples of Europe...
women and teenage girls, as young as 14, in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
Australia in 2000. The crimes—described as ethnically motivated hate crimes by officials and commentators —were covered very extensively by the news media, and prompted the passing of new laws. The nine men convicted of the gang rapes were sentenced to a total of "more than 240 years" in jail. According to court transcripts Judge Michael Finnane described the rapes as events "you hear about or read about only in the context of wartime atrocities".
| Day | Month | Year | Week day | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | August | 2000 | Thursday | Attackers offered a ride and a portion of marijuana to two teenage girls aged 17 and 18. The women were taken by the attackers to Northcote Park, Greenacre Greenacre, New South Wales Greenacre, a suburb of local government areas City of Bankstown and the Municipality of Strathfield, is located 17 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and is a part of the South-western Sydney region.-History:This area was once... where more collaborators were waiting. The women were then forced to fellate eight males. |
| 12 | Saturday | A 16-year-old girl was brought to Gosling Park, Greenacre Greenacre, New South Wales Greenacre, a suburb of local government areas City of Bankstown and the Municipality of Strathfield, is located 17 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and is a part of the South-western Sydney region.-History:This area was once... by someone who she believed was her friend, 17-year-old Mohammed Skaf. At the park she was raped by Mohammed's brother Bilal Skaf Bilal Skaf Bilal Skaf is a serial gang rapist who led groups of Lebanese Australian men who committed gang rape attacks against women in 2000.... and one other man, with twelve other men present who she said were "standing around, laughing and talking in their own language". The second man held a gun to her head and kicked her in the stomach before she was able to escape. |
||
| 30 | Wednesday | Another woman was approached by attackers at the Bankstown railway station, who proposed she join them in smoking some marijuana at another location. She agreed and went with them; however she was taken to three separate locations by the men and raped 25 times by a total of fourteen men in an ordeal that lasted six hours. After the attacks the woman was hosed down with a fire hose. The woman, who was known during the trial as 'C' to protect her identity, later told her story to 60 Minutes. She told of how the attackers called her an "Aussie Pig", asked her if "Leb LEB LEB may refer to:* Liga Española de Baloncesto, Spanish basketball league* The FAA identifier for Lebanon Municipal Airport * London Electricity Board, the public utility company responsible for electricity in the London area prior to privatisation in 1990* Life expectancy at birth* The Lexham... cock tasted better than Aussie cock" and explained to her that she would now be raped "Leb-style". |
||
| 4 | September | Monday | Two women, both 16, were taken by the attackers from Beverly Hills railway station to a house in another suburb, where three men repeatedly raped them over a period of five hours. One of the victims was told that "You deserve it because you're an Australian". |
Further attempted attacks
A further series of gang rapes were said to have been attempted, but thwarted. Four of the attackers were also convicted for an attack on Friday 4 August 2000 when they approached a fourteen-year-old girl on a train where she was threatened with violence, punched twice and slapped, told that she would be forced to perform fellatio on several men and that she was going to be raped.Attackers
- Bilal SkafBilal SkafBilal Skaf is a serial gang rapist who led groups of Lebanese Australian men who committed gang rape attacks against women in 2000....
led and orchestrated the three August 2000 attacks. He was initially sentenced to a total of 55 years imprisonment, but had his sentence for these attacks reduced by the New South Wales Court of Criminal AppealSupreme Court of New South WalesThe Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian State of New South Wales...
to 28 years, with no parole for the first 22 years. However, on 28 July 2006 Acting Justice Jane Mathews added another ten years to his sentence for his role in the 12 August rape. His original conviction over this attack had been quashed in 2004 and a retrial ordered after it was revealed that two jurors had conducted their own investigations at Gosling Park. Bilal Skaf is eligible for release on parole from 11 February 2033. In March 2003 Skaf was charged with sending mail containing white powder to a corrections department official from prison in an apparent hoax terrorist act. - Mohammed Skaf, younger brother of Bilal Skaf, was one of the gang rapists. He was sentenced to 32 years for his role in the gang rapes, but also had his sentence reduced on appeal, to 19 years with a non-parole period of 11 years. However, on 28 July 2006 he received an additional 15 years, with a minimum of seven and a half years over the Gosling Park attack. Mohammed Skaf will now be eligible for release on parole from 1 July 2019. Skaf showed no remorse for his crimes, making sexually inappropriate remarks to female staff at the Kariong juvenile facility where he was incarcerated, and continued to blame his victims for initially agreeing to go with him because "they came out with us as soon as I asked them."
- Belal Hajeid, then aged 20, was another gang rapist who was convicted and imprisoned for 23 years with a non-parole period of 15 years. Hajeid later had his sentence reduced on appeal.
- Mohammed Sanoussi, then 18, gang rapist who was sentenced to 21 years with a non-parole period of 12 years for the 10 and 30 August rapes. Sanoussi later had his sentence reduced to 16 years on appeal. Shortly after Sanoussi's conviction his brother and cousin were banned from visiting him in prison for three months after a rowdy clash with staff at the Kariong Juvenile Justice Centre where he was incarcerated. Shouting broke out when staff removed the visitors after they had tried to pass newspaper clippings to the brothers about their sentencing the previous day. Sanoussi remains behind bars after being denied parole for a second time in October, 2011. http://m.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-gang-rapist-loses-parole-bid-20111004-1l6k8.html
- Mahmoud Sanoussi, brother of Mohammed Sanoussi, then aged 17, was sentenced to 11 years and three months imprisonment with parole available after six-and-a-half years. He unsuccessfully appealed against his sentence in 2005. He was released on parole in May 2009, but had his parole revoked in March 2010 due to his drug use.
- Mahmoud Chami, then 20, attacker sentenced to 18 years with a non-parole period of ten years. Chami unsuccessfully appealed against his sentence in 2004. Chami is eligible for released on parole in December 2012.
- "H" (Identity sealed: H has had his name suppressed under court order due to his "intellectual and mental disabilities"), then 19, was sentenced to 25 years with a non-parole period of 15 years. 'H' later had his sentence reduced on appeal.
- "T", then 16, was initially sentenced to 15 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of nine years for his role in the 30 August rape. He was retried and sentenced to eight years and six months imprisonment with a non-parole period of four years and six months. He was released from prison in late June 2007.
- Mohammed Ghanem, then 19, was the final person to be sentenced and was imprisoned for 40 years with a non-parole period of 26 years for two counts of rape. Ghanem, like his co-offenders Bilal Skaf and Mohammed Skaf showed no remorse for his actions, effectively opting to "tough it out" at the Kariong Juvenile Justice Centre where he was detained while awaiting trial.
There was evidence to convict only nine men of the fourteen suspects. Sentences totaled 240 years in prison.
Racial controversy
Conservative commentators such as Miranda DevineMiranda Devine
Miranda Devine is an Australian columnist and writer noted for her conservative stance on a range of social and political issues. Her column, formerly printed twice weekly in Fairfax Media newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun-Herald, now appears in the News Limited Daily Telegraph with...
categorised the crimes as racially motivated hate crimes The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
reported that the rapists had stated to a victim, during the attack, "You deserve it because you're an Australian" and "I'm going to fuck you Leb style". Two thirds of Muslim and Arab Australians said that they experienced an increase in racial vilification
Racial vilification
Racial vilification is the term in the legislation of Australia that refers to a public act that encourages or incites others to hate people because of their race, nationality, country of origin, colour or ethnic origin...
towards them after a number of events including the 11 September 2001 attacks in the USA, the Bali bombings
Bali bombings
Bali bombings can refer to either of two separate incidents on the Indonesian island of Bali:* The 2002 Bali bombings, occurred on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali...
, and these rapes.
New laws
The public uproar caused by the gang rapes led to the passage of new legislation through the Parliament of New South WalesParliament of New South Wales
The Parliament of New South Wales, located in Parliament House on Macquarie Street, Sydney, is the main legislative body in the Australian state of New South Wales . It is a bicameral parliament elected by the people of the state in general elections. The parliament shares law making powers with...
, dramatically increasing the sentences for gang rapists by creating a new category of crime known as aggravated sexual assault in company.
Also, in the course of one of the trials the defendants refused counsel as they believed that "all lawyers were against Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s". This led to the contentious prospect of the defendants being able to cross-examine the witnesses—the victims—themselves, a situation that was averted by further legislation being put through the New South Wales parliament.
Actions taken by government ministers, including Premier of New South Wales Bob Carr
Bob Carr
Robert John "Bob" Carr , Australian statesman, was Premier of New South Wales from 4 April 1995 to 3 August 2005. He holds the record for the longest continuous service as premier of NSW...
, who publicly identified the perpetrators' background, led to controversy. Ethnic community group leaders, including Keysar Trad
Keysar Trad
Keysar Trad is a spokesperson for a section of the Australian Muslim community.- Background :Trad was born in Lebanon and came to Australia at the age of thirteen under the Australian government's family reunion program. He met and married his wife, Hanifeh, when he was in his early twenties...
of the Lebanese Muslim Association, complained that Carr was smearing the entire Lebanese Muslim community with the crimes of a few of its members, and that his public comments would stir up ethnic hatred
Ethnic hatred
Ethnic hatred, inter-ethnic hatred, racial hatred, or ethnic tension refers to feelings and acts of prejudice and hostility towards an ethnic group in various degrees. See list of anti-ethnic and anti-national terms for specific cases....
.
The first court case heard under the new sentencing regime concerned the gang rapes
Ashfield gang rapes
The Ashfield gang rapes were a series of attacks involving indecent assault and rape of possibly as many as eighteen teenaged women of varying ethnic backgrounds which were carried out in Ashfield, New South Wales, Australia in late 2001 and over a six month period in 2002...
of two women by Pakistani and Nepalese
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
immigrants in Ashfield
Ashfield, New South Wales
Ashfield is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Ashfield is about 9 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the Municipality of Ashfield.The official name for the...
on 28 July 2002.
Coordination of the attacks
The attackers used SMSShort message service
Short Message Service is a text messaging service component of phone, web, or mobile communication systems, using standardized communications protocols that allow the exchange of short text messages between fixed line or mobile phone devices...
and mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s to orchestrate the attacks, utilizing this technology to phone ahead to other attackers to co-ordinate transport of rape gang members to the locations where women were being held. Authorities later released some of this material, recovered from the rapists' mobile phones. The attackers texted such messages as "When you are feeling down ...bash a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
or Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
and lift up". and "I've got a slut
Slut
Slut or slattern is a pejorative term applied to an individual who is considered to have loose sexual morals or who is sexually promiscuous...
with me bro, come to Punchbowl
Punchbowl, New South Wales
Punchbowl, a suburb of local government areas City of Bankstown and the City of Canterbury is located 17 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and is a part of the South-western Sydney region.- History :Punchbowl is named for a...
".
External links
- "Sentence Slashed: "Gang rapes not 'Worst Category'
- "40 years jail for last of Nine gang rape offenders"
- The West Australian ("Reign of terror by mobile phoneMobile phoneA mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
and the promise of a smoke", 31 July 2002). - The Guardian: Racially Motivated Crime and Punishment
- ABC TV's Four Corners: "...For being Lebanese
- ABC TV: Sentencing hearing of Bilal Skaf
- "The 'Young Muslim Man' in Australian Public Discourse" by Kiran Grewal, Transforming Cultures eJournal, Vol.2, No.1, November 2007