The Saint Hotel boss sentenced for indecent assault on drug affected woman

When a co-owner of celebrity haunt “The Saint” was contacted by a woman wanting VIP treatment at the hotel, he obliged. But then he took her back to his apartment, plied her with drugs and did something that left her traumatised.

Paul Nguyen formerly co-owned “The Saint” hotel in St Kilda.

A Melbourne hospitality heavyweight who plied a woman with cocaine before indecently assaulting her in his St Kilda apartment has avoided a jail sentence.

Former St. Hotel co-owner Paul Nguyen was sentenced in the County Court last Friday to an 18-month community corrections order after pleading guilty to one charge of indecent assault.

Nguyen, who co-owns trendy inner-city venues Hanoi Hannah and Tokyo Tina, was contacted by the woman as she wanted “express entry” to the St. Hotel on June 21, 2015.

Nguyen took the woman back to his apartment after the pair drank at “The Saint” that night.

The pair and another man did drugs and drank shots of vodka.

Nguyen, 41 at the time, asked the woman if he could do lines of cocaine off her breasts and stomach.

Judge Patricia Riddell said Nguyen removed the woman’s underwear while she was in a state of “deterioration”.

Hospitality heavyweight Paul Nguyen.

Paul Nguyen has avoided a jail sentence.

The woman told Nguyen she had trouble breathing and had a weak heart but she believed he wasn’t listening so asked him to “at least put a condom on”.

She started to feel sick and was unable to walk on her own.

Nguyen helped her to the bathroom, where she crashed into the shower screen and vomited into the toilet.

“Clearly at that point you knew she was in an unwell state,” Judge Riddell said.

Nguyen placed her on his bed and touched her inappropriately but she brushed him away.

Nguyen then committed indecent acts.

The woman rang Nguyen several days later but he denied doing any wrongdoing.

He also made a denial to police, even after his semen was found on the woman’s underpants.

Nguyen was eventually charged on January 11, 2017.

He was excluded from renewing his liquor licence and therefore had to relinquish managerial control of the St. Hotel, which put the business in a “parlous financial state”.

Judge Riddell said intoxication offered no “shield” to responsibility.

“She trusted you and you breached that trust,” she said.

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“Regardless of her state of intoxication she was entitled to her safety in your company.”

In her victim impact statement, the woman said the events caused her “confusion, trauma and ongoing difficulties”.

Judge Riddell said Nguyen’s lack of sexual offending history made the incident an “out-of-character aberration”.

“I’m confident your prospects of rehabilitation are excellent,” she said.

Nguyen was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid community work and undertake drug counselling.

He will also need to complete a sex offender treatment program.

Nguyen, a Melbourne University business graduate, pleaded guilty to cocaine possession in 2012.

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