NSW convicted sex pests named and shamed as hotspots for sexual offences revealed
Thousands of sexual offences have been reported last year as the hotspots across NSW have been revealed. Check your area.
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More than 14,000 sexual offences were recorded in NSW in just 12 months with more than 2500 assaults occurring in just 10 hotspots.
In NSW, the Central Coast, Blacktown and Sydney local government areas were the worst in the state for sexual assaults, recording 411, 330 and 295 offences respectively from October 2021 to September 2022.
Penrith, Lake Macquarie, Newcastle, Canterbury-Bankstown, Campbelltown, Wollongong and Parramatta all ranked in the top 10 worst LGAs.
Meanwhile Sydney, Blacktown, the Central Coast, Penrith and Canterbury-Bankstown were the worst areas for sexual touching, acts and other sexual offences.
The Sydney LGA alone saw more than 400 sexual touching, acts and other sexual offences.
NSW Police last month unveiled a new online reporting option for rape survivors who want to provide information without taking part in a formal police interview.
The overhauled system will allow victims to upload images and screenshots of conversations with perpetrators, including evidence of contact via dating apps.
Police and the government hope the system will allow victims to have more control over how their matter is dealt with, and the portal will give them the option of remaining anonymous or requesting a follow-up from police.
The number of reports made under the system has continued to rise each year, with the monthly average increasing from 64 reports in 2021 to 70 in 2022.
The new portal — available in a dozen languages — will replace the tedious process of printing out a 14-page document and emailing the State Crime Command’s Sex Crimes Squad.
Here are the shocking cases of sexual intercourse without consent.
RIAZ BEHI: SYDNEY
A court heard disturbing details of how a Sydney chiropractor repeatedly sexually assaulted his client and took advantage of the fact she did not understand English or Australian treatment practices.
Riaz Behi was jailed in the Downing Centre District Court in relation to 13 charges, including sexual intercourse without consent and sexual touching while under authority.
They were committed against a Japanese national during several appointments at the Back Guys on York St, Sydney.
A jury found Behi guilty of the 13 charges in a retrial after the first trial resulted in a hung jury.
He was convicted of all charges and sentenced to an aggregate term of nine years in jail, with a non-parole period of five years and six months. A notice of intention to appeal was lodged on June 28.
RICHARD GIARDINA: SYDNEY
A heinous killer, who was already in prison for murdering and burning his wife, has learnt fate after DNA revealed him as a smirking rapist who attacked a woman in her bed in the 1980s.
Richard Giardina is serving a life sentence for murdering his estranged wife, Lisa Maree Keem, in 2008.
DNA samples were taken from Giardina, after his arrest in 2008, and passed on to NSW Police.
It was determined a year later it was linked to a 1988 rape in Sydney.
Giardina was finally charged in 2020 and pleaded not guilty before a jury.
Prosecutors told the jury that, days before Christmas 1988, a stranger had broken into a 20-year-old woman’s darkened bedroom while she slept in her ground floor apartment.
The half-asleep woman, known only as JS, thought it was her friend and asked the intruder “is that you Glenn?”, prosecutors told the court.
The stranger in her room was Giardina - he answered “yes” and raped JS, knowing she had mistaken him for someone else.
The jury found Giardina guilty of breaking and entering and sexual intercourse without consent in July and Giardina faced sentencing this week.
He was sentenced to four years in prison, backdating to September 2021. Giardina will become eligible for parole over the murder of his wife in mid-2023 and will become eligible for parole for his rape of JS in March 2024.
DANIEL BOONE: STANMORE
A British national found guilty of a “stealthing” rape was self medicating at the time and using alcohol and sex to cope.
Daniel Andrew Peter Boone was found guilty by a jury of one charge of sexual intercourse without consent.
The offence involved Boone“stealthing” a woman in Stanmore in May 2020. Stealthing is the common term referring to the act of removing a condom without consent.
He was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of two years, and six months with a non-parole period of one year and three months. He is eligible for parole from December 2023. A notice of intention to appeal was lodged on October 5, 2022.
ANTHONY ESTILO: GOULBURN
A former mental health nurse who was jailed for trying to have sex with a woman after her 19th birthday party successfully appealed his sentence.
Anthony Estilo, who worked at Chisholm Ross Centre mental health facility, pleaded guilty to attempting sexual intercourse without consent and sexually touching another person without consent.
Court documents stated that after a party, Estilo pulled the victim down to sit with him on the couch.
When she began to fall asleep, he took her into the bedroom and started kissing her and licking her neck and body, even after she said no and turned away.
The Goulburn resident was given an aggregate sentence of 24 months in jail, with a non-parole period of 15 months, on November 24, 2021.
But after an appeal, he was handed an 11-month aggregate sentence to be served in the community under an intensive corrections order.
ZHIFAN SONG: CHATSWOOD
A highly educated tutor who plied a teenage student with rohypnol before sexually assaulting her as she lay unconscious disguised the highly potent drug as health vitamins.
Zhifan Song, who operated a Chatswood tutoring business, pleaded guilty to sexual intercourse without consent and causing a person to take intoxicating substance with the intent to commit an indictable offence.
Song dispensed a “highly intoxicating substance” inside empty capsules disguised as health vitamins before indicating the victim would not receive future tutoring lessons if she refused to take them.
After drugging the victim with 6mg of rohypnol, Song undressed and sexually assaulted the unconscious teenager over the course of 1.5 hours.
Song was sentenced to an aggregate term of six years in prison with a non-parole period of three years. He will be eligible for parole in January 2025.
JONAH SOMASUNDARAM: NEWCASTLE
The words of a woman who endured a heinous rape attack in her own home in broad daylight were read out in court.
“The incident made me more wary of men. I’m very scared of people breaking into my house,” a victim support person read.
The 20-year-old victim was in her bedroom in her share-house at North Lambton on July 29, 2021 when she was confronted by a drunk Jonah Somasundaram who yelled “give me all your shit”.
He broke in, grabbed a steak knife from the kitchen and robbed her, taking a mobile phone and then he ordered her to strip naked before he repeatedly sexually assaulted her.
Somasundaram was jailed for 14 years with a non-parole period of 10 years, meaning he’ll be first eligible for release in July 2031. A notice of intention to appeal was lodged on December 26.
WADE SULLIVAN: NORTH COAST
A North Coast man was jailed for 13 years for unleashing a “terrifying” series of abuse against a woman who sought to terminate a pregnancy.
Wade Sullivan’s vile conduct included recording a forced sex act, sharing intimate videos of the pair on Snapchat, threatening to kill her family and a torrent of violent assaults.
He pleaded guilty to choking with intent to commit another offence, sexual assault while depriving liberty and two counts of assault causing actual bodily harm.
He further pleaded guilty to distributing an intimate image, recording an intimate image without consent, four counts of intimidation, two counts of assault and breaching an AVO. A notice of intention to appeal was lodged on November 21.
Here are the vile cases of sexual touching without consent.
HESAN SOUFI: BONDI
An aspiring footballer avoided jail after he sexually assaulted an intoxicated teen at his 20th birthday party at an eastern suburbs penthouse.
Hesan Soufi pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual touching without consent following a disturbing incident involving a 17-year-old girl at the Meriton Suites in Bondi Junction.
A court had heard the sleeping girl was “out of it” when other partygoers entered the room and found Soufi on top of her.
Court documents state the girl awoke and told Soufi “we’re not f**king” before he laid partially over her, unzipped his pants and said “it’s fine, baby”.
The girl then said she felt Soufi’s penis thrust between her legs as she began to cry, pleading with him to let her up.
Soufi was convicted on both counts and sentenced to a 30-month intensive correction order with supervision and 400 hours’ community service.
AARON SWEET: ASHFIELD
An Ashfield cafe owner was jailed for sexually molesting a woman nearly half his age.
Aaron Troy Sweet, “breached the trust” of the young woman and was “deceptive” throughout the ordeal, even telling her mother she was safe and on her way home, a court heard.
Sweet, a father of one, invited the woman to his Ashfield home for a “wine tasting experience” which would involve drinking a $400 bottle.
But instead, it was only a $4 bottle of wine and he sexually touched her after she fell asleep or was unconscious.
Sweet was sentenced to 21 months in prison which made him eligible for release on November 24, 2022.
MICHAEL HILL: DUBBO
A Dubbo father narrowly avoided jail after putting his hand inside a distressed young woman’s underwear and assaulting her outside the Western Star Hotel in Dubbo.
Michael Hill pleaded guilty to sexually touching another person without consent after the sickening incident involving a woman decades his junior.
He slid his hands under the victim’s playsuit, rubbing her vagina and clitoris, prompting her to say “this is wrong”.
“What’s so wrong with giving an old man a hard on,” Hill said according to court documents.
He was convicted and sentenced to an intensive corrections order for eight months.
BRENT ANDERSON: CASINO
A Lismore mechanic who groped a 19-year-old woman blamed “impulsive behaviour” for his actions.
Brent Joel Anderson was convicted at Casino Local Court after pleading guilty to two counts of sexually touching another person without consent.
The first offence occurred in January, when Anderson grabbed the victim by the breast on the outside of her shirt, before she pushed him away and told him to stop, the court heard.
The second time, Anderson rubbed his hand on the victim’s thigh for several seconds. The victim said Anderson made her feel “dirty” and “uncomfortable”, the court heard.
He was sentenced to a 30-month community corrections order.
Here are the heinous sexual abuse crime cases against children.
ROBERT VAN GESTEL
A brazen paedophile who sexually assaulted three young girls inside his home was sentenced to six years in jail, just hours after his first victim labelled him a “monster” in court and detailed the continuing impact of his crimes almost 50 years on.
The woman, who cannot legally be named, said Robert Van Gestel’s predatory behaviour towards her as a seven-year-old child in the mid-1970s left her feeling “dirty, ashamed and humiliated”.
Van Gestel was found guilty of eight counts of sexual and indecent assault following a jury trial earlier this year in which three women accused him of sexual conduct towards them when they were under the age of 10.
He was handed an overall jail sentence of six years, with a non-parole period of three years and six months and a three year community corrections order. A notice of intention to appeal was lodged on October 24.
WAYNE CASSELL: WOLLONGONG
A Dapto predator who stalked two teenage girls before raping them at a Wollongong beach was sentenced to nine years behind bars.
Wayne Anthony Cassell pleaded guilty to 11 charges including eight counts of sexual intercourse with a child aged 14 to 16, two counts of stalking or intimidate with the intent to cause fear of physical harm and one count of intentionally incite a child aged 14 to 16 to perform a sexual act.
After following them before they all boarded, Cassell followed the girls to Wollongong Beach despite their attempts to run away from him.
The frightened teenagers feared Cassell would turn violent or tell their parents they had snuck out of home which led to them agreeing to allow him to masturbate in front of them in the bushes at the beach.
However, this rapidly escalated with Cassell “aggressively” raping both girls with the court hearing they held hands to reassure each other they would survive the ordeal. A notice of intention to appeal was lodged on September 29.
JUSTIN MATTHEWS: NEWCASTLE
An Upper Hunter man sexually abused a 14-year-old girl he groomed on Snapchat more than 50 times over several years — meeting up with her to have sex in a bush and at a motel.
Justin Matthews abused six teen girls aged between 13 and 16, from mid-2016 until he was arrested in January 2021.
The court heard the Muswellbrook man abused one victim for several years, first meeting up with the 14-year-old at the local train station before the pair had sex in a bush. He was 33 at the time.
Matthews pleaded guilty to 13 child abuse charges, which include sexual assault of a child, possessing child abuse material, using a child to make child abuse material, grooming a child for sexual activity and using a carriage service to send indecent material to a person under 16.
He was sentenced to 15 years jail, with a non-parole period of seven and a half years. With time already served he’s eligible for release in 2029.
GAYE GRANT: WOLLONGONG
She was the “cool teacher”, however, disgraced Catholic school teacher Gaye Grant has been jailed for sexually exploiting a vulnerable boy over two years during the 1970s.
She was sentenced to six years and nine months in jail after previously pleading guilty to maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child.
Grant taught at St Paul’s Catholic Primary School in Albion Park for more than two decades, during which time she took advantage of the boy after he revealed to her he’d been assaulted by an older male during a sporting event.
Documents tendered in court indicated Grant’s sinful crimes against the boy who was as young as 10 extended from the classroom to the bedroom when her family wasn’t at her home on Theodore St in Oak Flats - a five-minute drive from the school.
The documents stated Grant raped the boy multiple times and professed her love for him on a piece of scrap paper in which she begged him to take her back after he ended their “relationship”.
BEN FENNER: BONDI
A schoolteacher who sexually abused a teenage student at an elite private girls’ school in Sydney has had his sentence reduced after three appeal judges found his prior good character and other redeeming features had not been given enough weight in his sentence.
Ben Fenner pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual intercourse with a person under his care after conducting a months-long sexual relationship with a 17-year-old female student at Reddam House in Bondi, where he was a biology teacher.
Eight similar offences against the same girl were taken into account on sentencing in the District Court.
Fenner was sentenced to three years and nine months’ imprisonment in October 2020 after the court heard foul details of the way in which he took advantage of the student, who was under significant personal stress at the time.
But after an appeal, Fenner’s sentence was quashed and he was resentenced to three years’ imprisonment – a nine-month reduction of his original sentence.
LUIGI SBIRZIOLA: CAMDEN
Disgraced former pharmacist Luigi Sbirziola went from a respected Camden business figure to a prisoner after he was found guilty in the Sydney District Court of three sexual offences involving teen girls.
On September 21, 2021 Sbirziola was found guilty of twice participating as a client in child prostitution and having unlawful sexual intercourse with a child who was cognitively impaired.
He was ultimately sentenced to an aggregate prison term of four years and nine months, with a non-parole period of three years and two months and was released to parole in July 2022.
On October 14, 2022 the Healthcare Complaints Commission acknowledged that if Sbirziola was still registered it would have cancelled him and then banned him from providing medical services for 10 years.
The HCCC judgment unveiled horrific details of Sbirziola’s offending against the three teenage girls which landed him in prison.
Sbirziola approached Person C, a 14-year-old girl with a mid-range intellectual disability living with an out-of-home care provider in Sydney’s southwest.
After asking her for a light or if she smoked “weed”, Sbirziola drove the girl to a storage facility in a nearby suburb and took her upstairs to an office with a large stock of perfumes and sex toys.
Sbirziola then sexually assaulted the girl, paid her $800 and gave her a bottle of perfume.
GARY CHILDS: NOWRA
A Nowra man who locked himself inside a bathroom with an underage girl before sexually assaulting her has been jailed after two more underage victims reported their abuse to police.
Gary John Childs, 41, of Nowra, pleaded guilty in May to two counts of intentionally sexually touching a child under 16, four counts of indecently assaulting a child under 16, and indecently assaulting a child under the age of 10.
In one incident, Childs placed his penis close to a victim’s face and told her to touch him.
Childs was convicted and sentenced to six years and six months in prison. He will be eligible for parole from June 2026.
RAY YOUNAN: SYDNEY
A perverted former Sydney tennis coach who manipulated a young student into vile abuse and sexual touching under the ruse of naked “massages” was jailed.
Ray Younan was sentenced for a string of offences against a former young student during trips to tennis tournaments across NSW.
The court heard that his victim was between 11 and 12-years-old at the time and how he isolated her by arranging to have them share a bed in a hotel room during the trips.
The 73-year-old pleaded guilty to 17 charges including 10 counts of sexually touching a child between 10 and 16 years old as well as seven counts of inciting a child to sexually touch.
Younan was jailed for six years and six months, with a four-year, three-month non-parole period. A notice of intention to appeal was lodged on September 5. The matter has been listed before the Criminal Court of Appeal on April 27.
JUAN ROJAS: BROOKVALE
A man who sexually groped a 12-year-old girl as she queued for fast food at a busy shopping centre avoided jail when he was sentenced in a Sydney court.
Juan Pablo Laureano Rojas pleaded guilty to sexually touching the girl on the bottom near the McDonald’s counter in Warringah Mall at Brookvale in late 2021.
Rojas was convicted and placed on a community corrections order, to be of good behaviour for two year
DAVID MCCORRISTON: BELMONT
A man was jailed for sexually assaulting multiple people under the age of 16, after befriending them and giving them alcohol.
David Allen McCorriston pleaded guilty to 19 sexual offences involving children, including sexual intercourse with a person under 16 and aggravated indecent assault with a person under 16.
The court heard McCorriston performed oral sex on his victims and they performed oral sex on him.
He was sentenced to 11 years and six months jail, backdated to the day of his arrest on June 2, 2021 and will be eligible for release on parole in May 2028. A notice of intention to appeal was lodged on September 23.
ROBERT WOTTON: SYDNEY
A former police officer sexually abused two girls and a young boy in what a judge described as a series of “opportunistic and predatory” attacks.
Robert John Wotton was found guilty at a judge-alone trial of two counts of indecent assault on a child under 10, four counts of indecent assault on a child under 16, and one count of inciting a child under 10 to commit an indecent act.
Despite the guilty verdict, Wotton has maintained his innocence, with the court hearing his wife Virgina has his full support and continues to stand by him.
Wotton, who was in his 40s at the time, repeatedly attacked one girl and a boy, and a second girl in a series of indecent assaults in Sydney between 2007 and 2017.
According to court documents, Wotton touched the children on their genitalia, and on one occasion forced one of the girls to touch his penis as they sat on her bed.
He was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison and will be eligible for release on parole in October 2026.
UNNAMED FATHER: KILLARNEY VALE
A father of four will remain in jail until at least 2025 after being convicted for sexually abusing two young children.
The man, from Killarney Vale, pleaded guilty to two counts of intentionally sexually touch a child under the age of 10 years, two counts of use a child under 14 years to make child abuse material, intentionally carry out a sexual act with a child under the age of 10 and sexual intercourse without consent.
The offences occurred against the man’s former partner, daughter aged two at the time and a five-year–old boy.
In April 2019 both the children were home when the offender again took two photos of the girl’s vagina, one photo with her hand placed on it. He also “played with her vagina”, according to the facts.
The man was convicted and sentenced to a term of eight years imprisonment with a non parole period of four years. With time already spent in custody, he will be eligible for parole in January 2025.
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