Bass Hill Plaza: Fouad Hasna in court over toilet sex attack on boy, 12
A magistrate has blasted a ‘victim blaming’ 50-year-old who claimed a boy gave him a “mysterious, sexual look” and “signals” before the man subjected the child to a terrifying sex attack in a public toilet.
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A man who tried to have sex with a young boy inside a shopping centre toilet in south west Sydney has been lashed by a magistrate for “victim blaming” after he claimed the boy had been giving him “signals”.
Fouad ‘Fred’ Hasna, 50, faced Parramatta District Court today for a sentencing hearing after admitting to grabbing the 12-year-old boy and indecently assaulting him inside a toilet cubicle at Bass Hill Plaza in 2017.
Hasna faces up to 10 years’ jail after pleading guilty to two counts of indecent assault on a child under 16.
The court heard the married father of two had been suffering from a bout of gastro when he stopped by the public toilet, a known ‘beat’ for homosexual men, at about 8pm on April 22.
CCTV footage captured Hasna following the boy inside the toilet, where he claims he heard the boy masturbating, which caused him to become “aroused”.
When the boy exited the cubicle, Hasna had his pants down and held his penis in his hand, when he grabbed the boy and forced him back inside the cubicle.
Hasna groped the boy’s genitals, forced the boy to his knees and moved his head towards his penis, telling the boy “I know you want my penis”, despite the boy asking him to stop.
During a cross-examination in court today, Hasna defended his actions and claimed he “mistook” the boy for a young man and believed the boy had given him “signals”, indicating sexual interest.
Hasna said the boy had passed him as he waited outside Aldi and gave him a “mysterious, sexual look”.
“I got it all wrong. I misread it,” he said.
“By the look of it, I thought he was an adult.”
Once inside the toilet, Hasna claimed the boy gave him further “signals” by masturbating inside the toilet and looking at him sexually.
“I was obviously aroused by what he was doing, he was masturbating in the cubicle. I could hear him and see him and hear the breathing,” he said.
Breaking down on the witness stand, Hasna spoke of the toll his crime had taken on family.
“I am deeply distressed about it and I have been for three years,” he said.
“I brought so much shame to myself and my family and so much distress onto the young person.
“I couldn’t live with myself knowing this person is close to the age of my youngest son.”
When asked by the Crown Prosecutor if he had been “cruising” and deliberately went to the toilets to engage in sexual activity, Hasna repeatedly denied this.
Frustrated by Hasna’s account, Judge Robyn Tupman lashed him for “victim blaming”.
“This has a flavour of victim blaming,” Judge Tupman said.
“Did you think he was a rent boy and was playing hard to get? You were cruising and you thought you got yourself something.
“What would make you think that he would be interested in you, a young man, who at the very least, was 30 years younger than you?”
Asked about his sexual tendencies, Hasna admitted to being bisexual but attributed his homosexual behaviour to mental illness, sparked by an accident he suffered in 2011.
“I’ve had a very happy married life and have children and this thing only came about because of my depression,” he said.
However, Judge Tupman again lambasted his claim.
“I found it extremely distressing that his person before me was prepared to be labelled a paedophile rather than accepting what he was, be that homosexual or bisexual,” she said.
“This entire event has the flavour of cruising gone horribly bad.
“He doesn’t want to admit what he is. He had to find an excuse for what he did otherwise he had to admit what he is.”
He will be sentenced on July 7.