Tinder rapist among Melbourne’s worst dating app sex predators
A narcissistic sexual predator who raped three women — one while his fiancee sat in a car outside the victim’s house — was dubbed the ‘Tinder rapist’ for his hideous crimes. And he’s not the only monster lurking on Melbourne’s dating apps.
West
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From narcissistic sexual predators to rapists and the mentally insane, online dating is a minefield and Melburnians could be forgiven for thinking “all the good ones” are taken.
So before some well-meaning person encourages you to jump back into the online dating pool, heed the warning from these recent horror stories.
Not everyone is as they seem online, and some are on the hunt for victims more than they’re looking for love.
Ratu Bose
Many people like to embellish the truth when filling out their online dating profiles, but rapist Ratu Bose took things to a whole new level.
The 33-year-old lied to women on Tinder by claiming he was ex-French military and a sniper.
His lies were so rich that even County Court Judge Trevor Wraight expressed doubt on information he’d provided to his lawyer about his personal life.
This included that Bose had worked as a chef at a five-star Swiss hotel, that his mother worked for the United Nations and that his dad was a senior employee with the Fijian government.
The court heard Bose had a habit of “hooking up” with women online and immediately moving in with them and forcing them to support him.
He headbutted one woman, causing her to bite her tongue, before raping her.
Another one of his victims ran to her car naked and drove to a friend’s place for help after Bose raped her.
The attacks took place between April 2016 and January 2017 and he was sentenced in August last year to a total 12 years and six months in prison.
Ben Hill
A single mother’s “greatest fear” was realised after she met Melbourne man Ben Hill online and struck up a relationship, only for him to sneak into her daughter’s room while she slept and commit a despicable act.
Hill, 33, matched with the Geelong woman online in early 2017 and weeks later travelled to visit her and her children at home, the County Court heard on August 6.
But on his first night in the family home he turned his depraved attentions to the woman’s daughter.
Once the household was asleep, Hill crept into the girl’s bedroom where he anally raped her twice and touched her inappropriately.
Hill, who immigrated to Australia from Ireland with his family as a child, was sentenced to 12 years and three months’ prison with a non-parole period of nine years.
Judge Gerard Mullaly said the girl had a right to feel safe in her own home but he’d destroyed that for his own “perverse” gratification.
“You told her to keep it a secret because you knew it was wrong,” Judge Mullaly said.
“This is a mother’s, a woman’s, greatest fear. That in seeking out a romantic relationship it risks and causes harm to her own child as a predator.”
Hill faces almost certain deportation upon his release.
Glenn Hartland
Narcissistic sexual predator Glenn Hartland, dubbed the Tinder rapist, raped three women and assaulted another between 2014 and 2016.
The 45-year-old Moonee Ponds man met all of his victims online and raped two of them after their relationship ended.
One woman was strangled and raped at her home after she tried to end their relationship.
Hartland told her after he was done; “You can call that the Monica Lewinsky dress.”
Another was raped when Hartland arrived at her home to pick up a pair of jeans he’d left there. The assault took place while Hartland’s fiancee waited for him in a car outside.
Hartland forced his third victim into a toilet cubicle at a St Kilda pub during a date where he assaulted her.
One of Hartland’s victims was so traumatised after his attack that she took her own life last year.
Hartlend was sentenced in May last year to 14 years and nine months’ jail with a non-parole period of 11 years.
During sentencing County Court judge Paul Higham said online dating apps were a “fertile landscape” where predators like Hartland could roam.
“Once your victims fell into your orbit, they were made hostage to your dysfunctional personality,” he said.
“Their only purpose was to serve your self-aggrandising and manipulative emotional and sexual needs.”
Shane James Kavanagh
Melbourne tradie Shane James Kavanagh forced himself on a woman he met through the dating app Tinder.
The County Court heard in May that the 31-year-old ice-addled brute told the woman he was “horny” before tearing off her clothes and forcing himself on her.
The woman had previously rejected his sexual advances and the pair had only known each other for a few weeks after having met in April 2018, the court heard.
During the assault, Kavanagh ripped the woman’s singlet off with such force it left a cut under her arm.
He also struck her in the face when she started having a panic attack and asked him to get off her.
He also ignored her pleas asking him to “please stop”.
Judge Liz Gaynor said Kavanagh’s treatment of the woman was “degrading” and involved the “suppression and oppression” of his victim.
Kavanagh contested the charges but was found guilty of rape by a jury and was sentenced to seven years’ jail with a non parole period of five years and three months.
Conway Lee
A doctor who put “his own sexual gratification above the will of his patient” has had his medical licence cancelled for six years.
Former men’s health doctor Conway Lee propositioned a patient on the gay dating app Grindr, made him masturbate during a consultation and sleazily asked if he could make a “home visit”, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard.
Dr Lee, 39, also conducted inappropriate examinations where he stroked and massaged his patients’ penises.
The Medical Board told the tribunal earlier this year that Dr Lee crossed boundaries with his conduct against the two patients in 2017.
They sought a prohibition order stopping him from working in any health service.
“The conduct was inconsistent with Dr Lee being a fit and proper person to hold registration as a medical practitioner,” the board submitted.
Instead, the tribunal cancelled Dr Lee’s medical licence in May for six years.
Dr Lee was banned from seeing patients but the tribunal still permitted him to apply for other work in the medical field, including as an educator or adviser.
Jamie Lee Dolheguy
Killer date Jamie Lee Dolheguy, 18, lured her victim, Maulin Rathod, to her Sunbury home in July 2018 for sex after meeting him on Plenty of Fish.
The troubled young woman later told police she was certain she was going to kill Mr Rathod the minute he messaged her. She told them she just had an urge to kill.
Dolheguy, who once believed she was a werewolf, googled: “I’m going to kill someone tonight for fun” followed by “I’m going to kill someone tonight help” and “I will kill someone tonight, I want to commit murder”, before her victim arrived.
During a choke-play sex game she then strangled the 24-year-old Indian student and used the cord of a vibrator wrapped around his neck to finish him off when her arms got tired.
Dolheguy called police straight afterwards and admitted to her crime.
But she was acquitted of murder after she was found to be so psychiatrically damaged as a result of her abusive childhood that a murder charge could not be made out.
Dolheguy’s defence counsel suggested the Supreme Court sentence her to a term of four years in youth detention, but prosecutors have opposed the suggestion.
They say a jail term at an adult prison is warranted and Dolheguy should be locked up to protect the community. Dolheguy, now aged 20, is due to be sentenced at a later date.
Amanda Scully, Jestony Vella, Tamai Tautuhi
Three “amateur” vigilantes threatened to “expose” a man they met online as a paedophile if he didn’t hand over cash or his car keys.
Amanda Scully, 22, her boyfriend Jestony Vella, 25, and friend Tamai Tautuhi, 20, were sentenced in May by the County Court for the bungled blackmail attempt.
The con saw Scully, a mum of two young girls, pose as a 14-year-old girl online in June last year using the dating app Skout and arranged to meet her 37-year-old victim outside Sunshine supermarket.
The plan was that the man would pick her up and she would go back to his place where they would watch a movie, but when he arrived he was instead confronted by Scully, Vella and Tautuhi.
Scully threatened to report the man to police and “expose” him on social media as a paedophile if he didn’t pay her $1000 in hush money or give her his car keys.
Instead of acquiescing to her demands, the man instead took a photo of the group and went to the nearby police station where he made a complaint.
Scully and Vella were sentenced to a two-year community corrections order and must do 150 hours’ unpaid community work. Tautuhi was handed a one-year community corrections order and must complete 100 hours of work. All three escaped conviction.
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