Zhifan Song: Chatswood tutor sentenced over drugging, sexually assaulting teenage student

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, a court has heard.

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, a Sydney court has heard.

Zhifan Song, 37, who operated a Chatswood tutoring business, was sentenced in the Downing Centre District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to sexual intercourse without consent and cause person to take intoxicating substance with the intent to commit an indictable offence.

The court heard in the lead up to the sexual assault in October 2018, Song cancelled other clients and created a situation where the victim would be alone with him.

Zhifan Song, pictured during an earlier appearance at Hornsby Court.

The court heard that before he joined the victim for the scheduled appointment he researched the effectiveness of the “date rape drug”.

Song then dispensed the “highly intoxicating substance” inside empty capsules disguised as health vitamins before indicating she 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.

The court heard he did not use a condom and exposed the victim to pregnancy or disease.

Song was sentenced in the Downing Centre on Friday.

In the hours after the offending, he refused to take calls from the victim’s mother before telling his own parents he had “done a bad thing”. The next morning he attended Hornsby Police Station where he admitted to the offending.

Crown prosecutors there were various factors that should be taken into account in sentencing including the age and vulnerability of the victim, and the relationship of the trust that had been in place between Song and the victim.

Song’s lawyers submitted the 37-year-old had a history of significant mental health issues and the level of pre-planning involved in the offending was “not sophisticated”.

The court heard he was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 17 and had not been fully compliant with his antipsychotic medication in the lead up to offending.

The court further heard Song was “overwhelmed by guilt and sadness” and “devastated he could no longer work in education” having completed a Bachelor’s degree, Masters and a PHD and before starting his own tutoring business in 2017.

Judge Phillip Mahony, in sentencing, said Song’s offending was “inherently violent” and had “substantial impacts” on the victim – including on her HSC studies.

“The objective seriousness was substantial as was the moral culpability of the offending,” Judge Mahoney said.

“He abused his position of trust as the victim’s tutor.”

Song was sentenced to an aggregate term of six years in prison with a non-parole period of three years, backdated to January this year.

He will be eligible for parole in January 2025.