Skaf gang rapes: How the month-long Sydney rampage unfolded
They were heinous crimes - gang rapes spread across a month that traumatised at least seven teenage girls and appalled the nation. Here’s how the rampage unfolded.
Police & Courts
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As the joy of the upcoming 2000 Olympics swelled through Sydney, a frenzy of attacks unfolded.
It was 21 years ago. But they remain some of the most vicious crimes Sydney has witnessed for many decades.
Over four horrifying weeks from August to September, a gang of Lebanese-Australian Muslim youths went on a rape rampage targeting young, non-Muslim girls.
The attacks were so degrading and demeaning, the judge described them as “worse than murder”.
NSW District Court judge Michael Finnane jailed the nine young men — including 18-year-old ringleader Bilal Skaf — for a total of 240 years, describing the attacks as “what you hear or read about only in the context of wartime atrocities”.
This is how it happened.
It started on August 4, when a 14-year-old girl, who was weeks away from performing in the Olympic opening ceremony, was approached by four men while travelling on a train to Punchbowl, in western Sydney.
In a vicious attack she was punched, slapped, had condoms thrown at her, genitalia thrust at her and told she would be forced to perform oral sex on the men and then be raped.
“I’ve got a slut with me bro, come to Punchbowl,” one said on his mobile.
The girl was dragged off the train but managed to break free and escape before she was harmed.
On August 10, two girls — aged 17 and 18 — were late-night shopping at Chatswood Mall on the North Shore, when they were approached by eight men, including Bilal Skaf, 18, who introduced himself as “Adam”.
With the promise of sharing a joint, the girls were lured to a white van with four of the men. A red car, with the other four men, followed the van across the Harbour Bridge, to Northcote Park in Greenacre.
In the silent darkness behind a park toilet block, the girls were beaten and forced to repeatedly perform oral sex on eight men for a period of two hours. The attackers abandoned their victims at midnight and the girls were discovered by a couple walking past.
Just two days later the gang struck again — this time with more savagery.
A 16-year-old girl was lured to Gosling Park in Greenacre by her friend Mohammed Skaf, 17, the brother of rape “master of ceremonies” Bilal Skaf.
Summonsed by text messages, carloads of youths arrived at the park.
The victim was dragged across the field, pinned down by her arms and legs and raped by Bilal and another man while 12 men watched and laughed.
Her screams of terror and pain were drowned out by the crowd cheers from a nearby soccer game.
She said the attackers were “standing around, laughing and talking in their own language”.
The men held a gun to her neck and smashed her head against a concrete pylon.
Somehow, with one leg still in her pants, she managed to run to a phone box and was helped by a man driving past the park.
But August 30 was the most horrific attack of them all.
Wearing her best suit, an 18-year-old woman sat reading The Great Gatsby on a train on her way home from a job interview when she was approached by a group of youths.
‘DON’T MOVE BITCH OR YOU’RE DEAD’
Swayed by compliments, flirting and the promise of a puff on a joint, she got off the train.
When her mobile phone rang, one of the men snatched it off her and told the caller: ``She will only be 10 minutes”.
She was then abducted and raped 40 times by 14 men over six hours.
The men dragged her to a Marion Street toilet block at a carpark next to Bankstown station where she was raped by four men.
On the way they stop at a service station where she desperately tries to make a run for it.
“I tried to get out, climb over the seats to get out ... then the driver grabbed my left shoulder and pushed me down,” the victim told the court during the trial.
“I remember him rustling around and opening the glove box and he took out a weapon and held it to my head ... he said to me ‘don’t move bitch or you’re dead’. All I could feel was cold metal.”
The victim first laid eyes on Bilal at the Bankstown Trotting Club where she was again gang raped.
Tossed from one man to another, the victim was called an “Aussie pig’’, told she was going to get it “Leb style” and asked if “Leb c ... tasted better than Aussie c ...”.
The woman was then driven to an empty industrial complex in Chullora where another car load of youths joins them.
She is again repeatedly raped on the back seat of a car — including by two men at the same time.
In a final demeaning act, the attackers hosed her down and dumped her soaking wet in the cold August night at a train station.
On September 4, the gang once again approached two girls, both 16, at Beverly Hills train station.
The girls were taken to a house in Lakemba and raped by three men over a period of four hours.
One of the victims was told: “You deserve it because you’re an Australian”.
Nine men were sentenced to a combined 240 years for the rapes. At least five other men involved in the sordid crimes were never caught.
Police said they believe there were many other women who, out of fear or not wanting to relive their ordeal, did not report the attacks and that the true extent of the Skaf gang’s crime wave may never be known.
HISTORIC SENTENCES
Judge Michael Finnane describes the rapes as something “you hear about or read about only in the context of wartime atrocities” - how they ”treated each of their victims with callous indifference and considerable cruelty’’.
He described Bilal Skaf as the “leader of a brutal gang of rapists” who had “spread terror in Sydney’’.
Mohammed Skaf was initially jailed for 32 years which after another trial and an appeal ended up as 23 years with a non-parole period of 17 years.
NSW premier at the time Bob Carr came under fire when he called for the names of the rapists to be made public.
The Lebanese community said they were vilified for the attacks.
But Mr Carr stands by his decision.
“These were adult crimes and they were treated as adult crimes by the court,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“It would have been somewhat farcical to have not named them given the severity of the crimes.”
Crown Prosecutor Margaret Cunneen SC also pushed for the perpetrators to be named.
“The Australian Lebanese community deserves to have the spotlight drawn away from it and on to the individual perpetrators. Not naming the individuals places a burden on the entire Lebanese community ... the vast majority of whom are law-abiding citizens,’’ she said.
WHO WAS CONVICTED
Bilal Skaf was 19 years old when he was jailed in 2002. Referred to in the trial as the “master of ceremonies” for leading and orchestrating the rapes. Initially sentenced to 55 years, his sentence was reduced then increased. Now eligible for parole in February 2033.
Mohammed Skaf, then 17, the younger brother of Bilal Skaf, was used as bait to lure young women into the attacks. Judge Michael Finnane said: “His activities and those of the gang spread terror in Sydney.” He was originally sentenced to 32 years with a non parole period of 20 years. He will be released on parole in October 2021.
Mohamed Sanoussi, then 16, was sentenced to 21 years with a non-parole period of 12 years. Born without fingers on one hand, the court heard he told one rape victim during an attack “It’s my right”. He was released on parole in 2013 and with strict conditions not to have any contact with the “Brothers For Life” street gang.
Belal Hajeid, then 18, showed no remorse during his trial and smiled when he was sentenced to 23 years with a non-parole period of 15 years. He later had his sentence reduced on appeal.
Mahmoud Chami, then 18, was an apprentice bricklaying contractor nicknamed “Mambo” who was used to charm the girls with promises of marijuana or lifts home. Sentenced to 18 years with a non-parole period of 10½ years. He was released to parole in 2013.
Mohamed Ghanem, then 17, was described by Crown Prosecutor Margaret Cunneen as the “enthusiastic lieutenant’’ to ringleader Bilal Skaf. He was sentenced to 40 years with a minimum non-parole period of 26 years.
Tayyab Sheikh, then 16, was initially sentenced to 15 years in prison with a non-parole period of nine years for his role in the August 30 rapes. He was one of the four men who raped the teen in the Bankstown toilet, the court heard. He was released on parole in 2007.
Mahmoud Sanoussi, then 15, and brother of Mohamed, was sentenced to 11¼ years, with 6½ years non-parole. He was released to parole in 2009 and but was sent back to prison in 2010 for drugs. He was again released only to be jailed again in February 2014 for bashing a cleaner at a smash repair.
‘H’, 17, whose name is suppressed due to being a young person with intellectual and mental disabilities, was sentenced to 25 years with a non-parole period of 15 years.
He was released to parole in 2014 after serving 11 years in prison.
These articles first appeared in 2015
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