Rizik Khouri convicted of raping stranger in Lidcombe park

An entertainment professional who dragged a total stranger into a car and raped her in a western Sydney park has finally been brought to justice 25 years later.

Rizik Khouri, 45, was jailed for six years in April 2024 for the historic broad daylight rape of a woman in a western Sydney park in 1998. Picture: Facebook

An entertainment professional who dragged a disabled stranger into a car and raped her in a western Sydney park was busted more than 20 years later due to a DNA match.

Rizik Khouri was married, raising children, and lauded for his private and corporate event entertainment services and extravagant annual Christmas light displays at his Llandilo home.

Now, the disgraced business owner is behind bars for a shocking, vile sexual attack in broad daylight on a total stranger he “scooped up” off a western Sydney street in 1998.

A jury found Khouri guilty of sexual intercourse without consent at trial in October last year in respect of the historic incident.

He was found not guilty of aggravated sexually intercourse without consent after the jury was asked to consider if the female victim’s physical disability aggravated his offending.

Judge Robyn Tupman described the horrific incident in sentencing Khouri at Sydney District Court last week.

The Downing Centre court complex. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

The woman – who had only just moved to Sydney from overseas – was walking home after post-work drinks at a Lidcombe pub one afternoon in November 1998.

“The offender got out (of a car) and, in the words of the victim, scooped her around the waist and pulled her into the car,” Judge Tupman said.

“She was shocked, scared and frightened and until the conclusion of the offending, froze – she had never seen him or the driver, who she described as a woman.”

The victim was driven to a park in Lidcombe or Auburn where Khouri dragged her into a bush, kissed her, then forced her to the ground and used his body weight to pin her down.

The woman was unable to push herself up or push Khouri off due to the specific nature of her physical disability.

Judge Tupman said Khouri then raped the woman, without using a condom, and ejaculated inside her.

The woman was walking past Lidcombe train station when she was set upon.

The woman went directly to Auburn Hospital, where a sexual assault examination kit was performed including DNA swabs.

More than 20 years later, when Khouri participated in a mouth swab for unrelated reasons, his DNA pinged as a match for the sexual assault examination kit’s swabs from the 1998 rape.

The 45-year-old father of five was subsequently charged.

“There is no evidence of anything that could be described as planning, it was brazen and spontaneous,” Judge Tupman said.

“He had actual knowledge she was not consenting and I would regard the emotional harm to the victim as substantial.”

Judge Tupman described the victim as “calm” and “dignified” in her evidence throughout the trial.

“She has said ‘I had to find my own way to forgiveness so that I could have peace’,” Judge Tupman said.

“Her victim impact statement exemplifies the woman I’ve observed – a woman of grace and dignity.”

Police charged Khouri more than two decades after the assault following a DNA match. Picture: Monique Harmer

Khouri has always denied committing the crime but Judge Tupman said he had expressed something approaching remorse in an interview with a psychologist following his conviction.

“He acknowledged the victim’s trauma, and said ‘I can’t believe I put her through this, her family and my family, oh God, I’m ashamed’,” Judge Tupman said.

“(He said) ‘I’m terribly sorry to her and her family’ – while this falls short of an admission, I accept these answers demonstrate some insight into the impact of what occurred to the victim.”

Khouri had no criminal history when he committed the rape but had been sentenced to bonds without conviction in subsequent years for menacing driving and common assault.

Judge Tupman said Khouri had also received a community correction order for animal cruelty charges related to the neglect of alpacas, sheep and a goat he previously owned.

Khouri was convicted and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for the sexual assault, with a three-year non-parole period.

His wife wiped away tears as she sat among multiple family members who attended to support him.

Khouri is the founder of Cdarz Entertainment, which provides music and entertainment for events including weddings.

On his website, Khouri claims to have facilitated the entertainment at radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands’ 2010 wedding to ex-wife Tamara Jaber.