‘Vulnerable teenagers’: Victims of serial Gumtree rapist speak out after the artist lured them with promise of modelling work

The victim of a Sydney artist who hired models on Gumtree before raping them has spoken out for the first time, with Netflix now interested in the story.

EXCLUSIVE

When Ashley Yakimchuk arrived in Australia from Canada on a working holiday at age 18 in 2013, she expected the trip of her dreams.

Instead, her backpacking trip quickly became a nightmare after posting an innocent ad for casual work on Gumtree.

Ms Yakimchuk was the first victim to formally report Sydney artist and UNSW professor Pierre Mol for assault and is for the first time speaking publicly about her ordeal with the convicted rapist.

“I went to the hospital and police immediately after, endured the rape kit and countless hours and days with police officers afterwards, recounting the details of my assault,” she told news.com.au.

“This is what opened the entire case.”

Ashley Yakimchuk, who is now 29, is flying into Sydney from Canada in July to witness Mol being sentenced.

Mol shot to fame in the industry in the early 2000s when he painted the largest mural in the southern hemisphere at the request of the Sultan of Brunei.

This week, the 59-year-old faced the NSW District Court after pleading guilty to the assault of three more victims who have come forward in recent years.

He is already in jail after being convicted in 2015 for the rape of three women, including Ms Yakimchuk.

On July 5, he will be sentenced for his crimes concerning the three new victims for which he pleasded guilty to two counts of sexual intercourse without consent and three counts of indecent assault.

The court heard how Mol blamed his actions on his “lifelong mission to understand the human figure” and believed that because some of the women were art students, they would also be “dedicated” to his “study”.

Ms Yakimchuk is flying in from Canada just to witness him being sentenced.

“Facing him again in a courtroom, all these years later where I’m in a much stronger and empowered place will feel like some form of closure,” she said.

“He deserves to have to look at me again and be reminded of why he’s in there.”

The 2015 case

Ms Yakimchuk met Mol after he replied to her ad on Gumtree.

He offered her work as artist’s model for $45 an hour. He sent a link to his web page with examples of his work.

Mol was once an influential artist who was commissioned to complete several artworks including a ‘Brown Bear Lane’ mural in The Rocks. Picture: Supplied

Given Mol was a renowned artist at the time, she agreed.

After they arrived at his apartment, Mol demanded she take her clothes off before touching her without consent.

On a second occasion, Mol sexually assaulted Ms Yakimchuk as she cried, looking at the ceiling before giving her $100 and dropping her at the train station.

She went to the police with Mol claiming Ms Yakimchuk was only crying after the encounter.

Another woman – Hollie May – also came forward after Mol responded to her Gumtree ad offering babysitting work.

“All I knew was that he was an older credible art professor who I naively believed because of his status and position of power,” Ms May said.

Mol also sexually assaulted Ms May after hiring her as a model for $45 and argued the encounter was consensual, despite Ms May saying “no” multiple times.

Hollie May also came forward after Mol responded to her Gumtree ad .

‘All I knew was that he was an older credible art professor, she said.

“The assaults we experienced were nearly identical,” Ms May said.

“A serial rapist fixated on causing serious harm through violent and sexual attacks on vulnerable teenagers.”

He was sentenced in 2015 to 12 years in prison for the assaults of the three women.

Three more victims

Ms Yakimchuk says she is coming forward publicly, just in case more victims are out there.

When police first searched his home back in 2013, Mol took the memory card out of his camera and smashed it into pieces in his back garden.

In most of the assault cases, Mol took photos of the women before committing the crimes.

He told police he “panicked” about the memory card’s contents.

A photo of Mol and the mural in 2007. Picture: News Corp Australia

“Pierre told me there were many other girls,” Ms Yakimchuk said.

“He specifically said he mostly targeted travellers like myself.”

With three more victims coming forward in recent years, Ms Yakimchuk believes there may be more out there.

“These women may never know justice and at the least they deserve to know that he’s been locked up,” she said.

Horrific crimes

Mol’s current case involves three women who he assaulted while working as an artist and a casual academic at the UNSW College of Fine Arts.

One of the victims he met while judging an art competition in Byron Bay, while the other two he met via Gumtree.

The youngest of the victims was 19. He was 48 at the time.

According to court documents obtained by news.com.au, Mol met the teenager for coffee at Westfield Parramatta after responding to a Gumtree ad for work. He told her the modelling work would be “very professional”.

“I want to make this clear. I want people to know I am a professional artist and not a creep,” he told her.

Mol painting a mural at a restaurant in Byron Bay in 2009. Picture: News Corp Australia

Mol then brought her to his home in Sydney’s north shore in Wahroonga where he told her to undress.

He then touched her non-consensually, telling her she had “the perfect body”.

He then sexually assaulted her, paid her $100 and dropped her at a local train station.

Driving off, he said to the victim: “I guess you won’t come back and see me again?” and chuckled.

The mural

This week, the NSW Government told news.com.au it would be removing a mural painted by Mol in the Rocks in the coming weeks.

The move comes after Mol’s victims started an online petition to get the mural removed.

The artwork, Brown Bear Lane, is situated in a side street off George Street and was painted in 2006.

A general view of the mural Brown Bear Lane in the Rocks in Sydney. Picture: Newswire/ Gaye Gerard

The NSW Department of Planning said in a statement that the move came after “community feedback”.

“We are committed to creating safe and inclusive places and have developed a Women’s Safety Strategy for the area,” a spokeswoman for the state government said.

“As part of a George Street upgrade project we will create a welcoming entry to The Rocks. The mural Brown Bear Lane undermines this objective so it will be removed in coming weeks.”

The mural in the Rocks is signed off by Mol’s business Fine Art Empire. Picture: Newswire/ Gaye Gerard

Victim Hollie May said the removal of the mural was a “relief”.

“It provided a constant reminder to the nightmare myself, and other innocent young women, were subjected to,” she said.

Originally published as ‘Vulnerable teenagers’: Victims of serial Gumtree rapist speak out after the artist lured them with promise of modelling work