Victoria’s worst serial rapist Xiaodong Frank Hu to appeal sentence based on somnophilia diagnosis

Xiaodong Frank Hu is serving Victoria’s longest prison term for sexual offending after drugging and raping seven women in his Collins St office. He is now preparing a legal appeal, claiming a sexual disorder made him want to sleep with unconscious people.

Xiaodong Frank Hu is serving the longest prison term for sexual offending in Victoria’s history

One of Melbourne’s most prolific and disturbed serial rapists wants his prison sentence slashed based on his sexual attraction to unconscious people.

The Herald Sun can reveal Xiaodong Frank Hu – who is serving the longest prison term for sexual offending in Victoria’s history – is preparing a rare legal challenge to minimise his time behind bars.

The development comes as police reveal the true extent of his sexual depravity may never be known, as many of his victims, whose assaults he recorded on his phone, are unable to be identified.

Hu, 39, will appeal his maximum 29-year prison term next month based on his belief the sentence was “manifestly excessive” and failed to balance his predatory sexual fetish for unconscious people known as somnophilia.

Xiaodong Frank Hu during his police interview. Picture: Supplied

Hu raped the young women at his Collins St office in Melbourne’s CBD. Picture: Supplied

Police have now revealed the Melbourne-based migration agent would hire young women on student visas for the sole purpose of raping them, mostly on their first day of work inside his Collins St office suites until his arrest in August 2019.

Analysis of his phone revealed 1949 photos and 232 videos of him drugging, raping and sexually assaulting 15 different women — eight more than he was convicted over in 2023, it can now be revealed.

Police still consider this just the “tip of the iceberg” as Hu had in his possession thousands more photos and videos of women whose identity remains unknown.

One woman was drugged, raped and sexually assaulted by Hu 68 times over the course of four years.

Another almost died after a cocktail of hardcore drugs and sedatives concealed in her milk put her into a near-fatal cardiac arrest.

Hu used a cocktail of drugs and sedatives to knock out his victims. Picture: Supplied

The true extent of Hu’s sexual depravity may never be known. Picture: Supplied

Hu has hired lawyers to represent him in the Court of Appeal where they will argue his somnophilic disorder, diagnosed by psychiatrist Dr Adam Deacon, was not fairly considered at sentencing.

Barrister Chris Terry argued the paraphilia was a serious psychiatric illness which rendered Hu an “unsuitable vehicle for general deterrence”, but that was rejected by County Court Judge Trevor Wraight.

“Your conduct was cold, calculated and repetitive,” Judge Wraight said at sentencing.

“Once you had rendered your victims unconscious, you then meticulously documented the incident by photographing the respective victim.”

Hu worked as a Melbourne-based migration agent. Picture: Supplied

Hu is Victoria’s worst serial rapist. Picture: Supplied

Hu’s upcoming appeal will also argue that insufficient weight was given to his guilty plea made early during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bringing down Hu was one of Melbourne’s Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team’s (SOCIT) biggest investigations.

Raids on his office suites and apartments uncovered drugs, women’s clothing, condoms, syringes and medical tubing used in his sexual crimes.

Disturbingly, Hu would upload his rape videos to an underground Chinese website where he coached other predators on techniques and drugs to keep people unconscious.

Somnophilia, also dubbed “sleeping beauty syndrome”, typically refers to sexual attraction to a sleeping person, however Dr Deacon said in Hu’s case his interest is in unconscious people given the efforts he went to sedate them.

Imprisoned at Hopkins Correctional Centre, Hu will be aged in his early 60s before he is eligible for parole in 2045.

Originally published as Victoria’s worst serial rapist Xiaodong Frank Hu to appeal sentence based on somnophilia diagnosis