Jiaming Guo: RMIT student freed after group threatens Melbourne sex worker
An international student who stormed a Melbourne sex worker’s CBD apartment looking for revenge after a friend contracted an STD has been released from youth detention. Here’s why.
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A Chinese international student who tricked his way into a Melbourne CBD apartment and threatened a terrified sex worker has been released from youth detention.
Jiaming Guo, 20, was freed by the Court of Appeal on Thursday after the woman was subjected to the frightening ordeal in November 2018.
Last month the County Court heard Guo made a fake booking for sex in order to gain entry to the woman’s Elizabeth St apartment.
But once inside he let in nine of his mates who were all wearing gloves so they would not leave fingerprints.
The group told the woman they were there to take revenge after their friend contracted an STD after hiring her services and was forced to fly back to China for treatment.
They threatened to rape the woman and demanded she transfer $10,000 into their bank account.
Documents tendered to the Court of Appeal described how the woman was able to raise the alarm after convincing the men to allow her to go to a nearby apartment to pick up some cash.
Police tracked Guo, an RMIT business management student, days later at his Carlton apartment after identifying him by CCTV footage.
The court was told Guo had no prior criminal history and was aged 18 at the time of the offence.
Guo pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary at the County Court and was last month sentenced to 12 months at Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre.
But his lawyer appealed the decision at the Court of Appeal where Justices Phillip Priest and Mark Weinberg set aside his sentence on Thursday, October 29.
Mr Priest and Mr Weinberg said the judge was mistaken in imposing a term of youth detention and immediately released Guo on a one-year community corrections order.
“In resentencing, we have regard to the applicant’s youth, his previous good character and lack of prior convictions, (and) the fact that the aggravated burglary … appears to have been an aberration borne of peer pressure,” they said.
They also noted Guo was remorseful and had helped police track down his friends involved in the incident.
Guo, who is residing in Australia on a student visa, will be permitted to remain in Melbourne and continue his studies.
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